The NBA is in a new era of parity that is reaching a historic level. With the Denver Nuggets being eliminated from the 2024 NBA Playoffs, we are guaranteed to have a new champion for the sixth successive season.
2024 NBA Champions: TBA
2023 NBA Champions: Denver Nuggets
2022 NBA Champions: Golden State Warriors
2021 NBA Champions: Milwaukee Bucks
2020 NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers
2019 NBA Champions: Toronto Raptors
The NBA has seen years of certain franchises consistently being in the mix for title success and creating dynasties. Teams like the Warriors, Heat, Spurs, Lakers, Bulls, Celtics, Pistons, and the Rockets have either had dynasties or successful title defenses in the last 45 years of NBA history.
The last time we saw six different champions be crowned in six successive seasons was from 1975 to 1980, as multiple teams took the crown before the start of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry headlined by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, who won eight titles in nine seasons.
1980 NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers
1979 NBA Champions: Seattle SuperSonics
1978 NBA Champions: Washington Bullets
1977 NBA Champions: Portland Trail Blazers
1976 NBA Champions: Boston Celtics
1975 NBA Champions: Golden State Warriors
This run of different champions ended with the Celtics winning a title in 1981, but it is still the longest run of new champions the league has ever seen.
This record will definitely be matched this season, but it’ll be interesting to see if the new champion or the other five franchises to have won titles prior to them will be able to stop history from occurring in the 2024-25 season.
Is The Dynasty Era In The NBA Over?
Basketball fans have internalized the presence of an NBA dynasty over the last 40 years of watching the sport. Outside the aforementioned six-season stretch from 1975 to 1980, there was hegemonic domination by teams like the Celtics and Lakers. They’re the two teams that ended the late-70s era of parity by winning eight titles in the next nine seasons.
Most of the ’90s title-winners defended their championship as well, starting with the Pistons who won in both 1989 and 1990. The Bulls three-peated with Michael Jordan before the Rockets won back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995. This led to another Bulls’ three-peat, with the string of teams winning more than one title ending with the Spurs who won in 1999 and lost in 2000.
That wasn’t much better, as it led to the Lakers three-peating with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. The Spurs never won back-to-back titles but won titles every alternate season from 2003 to 2007. This was followed by the Lakers’ winning consecutive titles in 2009 and 2010, with the Heat also going back-to-back in 2012 and 2013.
The 2015 Finals ushered in a dominant two-team era where the Warriors and Cavaliers would compete over four Finals, with the Warriors winning three titles in that stretch, ending with their 2018 triumph. Since Kevin Durant‘s injury torpedoed the Warriors in the 2019 Finals and he left the franchise, we’ve seen no team rise to dynasty level.
The Timberwolves and Celtics will hope they can be the NBA’s next dynasty, while the Mavericks are looking to continue to prove their doubters wrong. If any of the four remaining teams win the title, they will be tasked with preventing history next season by defending their crown.
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