Did you know what teams were dynasties?

To date only 6 teams have created dynasties, and they are...

1. 1950s-60s Celtics

Title run: 11 in 13 years. Take a deep breath – 1957, 1959-66, 1968-69.
What made them historic: These Celtics had the perfect recipe to create America’s greatest pro team sports dynasty. They had a great player (and big man) in Bill Russell, who galvanized the action on the floor. They had a great coach and even shrewder general manager in Red Auerbach, who got the players necessary to win titles and molded them. And they had an owner (also the team’s founder) in Walter Brown, who had only one question for Auerbach when he wanted somebody: Can the guy play? (Brown was the owner who broke the NBA’s color line by signing Chuck Cooper in 1950.) In the free-agency and salary-cap eras, winning 11 titles in 13 years seems impossible because you can’t keep players together long enough. But even in these Celtics’ pre-free-agency and salary-cap eras, this sort of winning was impossible to accomplish – except by Boston.




2. 1990s Bulls
Title run: Six in eight years – 1991-93, 1996-98.
What made them historic: This will be the NBA’s great what-if -– what if Michael Jordan hadn’t taken two years off in the middle of the 1990s? (Someday, someone is going to write a blockbuster book about what really motivated Jordan to, ahem, spend some time with his family and, later, pursue his dream of becoming a pro baseball player. Lest we forget, at the time of his 1993 retirement, various allegations about gambling and involvement with unseemly figures were swirling around Jordan. Just sayin’.) Would the Bulls have been the greatest dynasty of all-time? It’s ridiculous LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Harold Miner, et al, get tagged with Jordan comparisons, because no player will ever compare. No shooting guard is ever going to have the talent, competitiveness and Zen (supplied by Phil Jackson, the previously unknown coach who taught Jordan how to play nice with his Bulls unequals) to lead his team to such great heights. Even if he has a Scottie Pippen by his side.

3. 1980s Lakers
Title run: Five in nine years – 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88
What made them historic: Pairing one of the NBA’s greatest centers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with its greatest point guard, Magic Johnson. Johnson’s enthusiasm and omnipresent grin was the yin to Abdul-Jabbar’s serious-as-a-heart attack yang, revving up the Lakers’ Showtime era and, with Johnson’s college rivalry with Larry Bird carrying over to multiple championship battles, putting the NBA on the sporting map for good. By the way, do you realize how close we came to Johnson playing in Utah? The Lakers got the No. 1 pick to take Johnson because the Jazz had traded it for the aged Gail Goodrich. Although there was jazz in Johnson’s game, it is hard to imagine Johnson’s game in Jazz.

4. 1950s Lakers Title run: Five in six years – 1948 in the NBA predecessor the Basketball Association of America, then 1950 and 1952-54 in the NBA What made them historic: The Minneapolis Lakers were the NBA’s first dynasty. They also were the first to prove that no matter what style of basketball anyone plays, no matter what great forwards or guards anybody else has, any team that has the dominant big man of its era will win a fistful of championships (exception: the Jordan Bulls). That's why the Portland Trail Blazers are eager to take Greg Oden as their No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA draft. In the Lakers’ case, that dominant big man was a bespectacled chap named George Mikan.

Mark Lennihan / AP Dennis Johnson helped the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1986 Finals. 5. 1980s Celtics Title run: Three in six years -– 1981, 1984, 1986. What made them historic: Three-in-six doesn’t seem dynasty-like, but the Celtics’ rivalry with fellow 1980s dynasty the Los Angeles Lakers (subtext: Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson) defined the NBA and made it truly major league. The first Celtics’ championship run that decade included games tape-delayed for after-the-11-o’clock-news showing on CBS. By the end of their run, the Boston-L.A. series (they played three times for the championship, with the Lakers winning twice) was prime time all the way.

6. 2000s Lakers
Title run: Three straight, 2000-02
What made them historic: These Lakers were the supernova of dynasties: spectacular and explosive for a short burst, outshining everything else in the NBA galaxy, and emanating shock waves that reverberate even after the team is fading from view. You know the story. Coach Phil Jackson came out of retirement to make Shaq and Kobe (do you really need their last names?) play nice. Thus was born a never-a-dull-moment soap opera that, for a time, threatened to become bigger than Jackson’s Michael Jordan Bulls teams.



The Spurs won their third title in five years – enough to make them a true dynasty. There is no official definition of dynasty, but three in five years appears to be a minimum standard. Amassing four titles in nine years -– taking in the Spurs’ 1999 title -– doesn’t hurt their case, either.
Where do the Spurs rank among great NBA dynasties? Until they get a few more under their belt, probably among the bottom rung, not so close to the 1990s NBA Bulls. But this list is hard enough to make, much less rank at the top. It’s not being patronizing saying it’s honor just to be listed as a dynasty.



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