James Naismith American sports coach invented basketball at the beginning of the 20th century. Because of the fact that basketball was conceived in the US, champions of this competition are considered the best in the world. The NBA is one of the most-watched competitions in the world, compared to Euroleague and minor basketball tournaments, it garners a lot of viewership from spectators.
The popularity of the league impacts its overall range in sports. Some of you might be wondering whether there has been a match between NBA and Euroleague champions to determine the best in the world. First, in , the Chicago Bulls , under Michael Jordan played against Olympiacos and they easily won the match For the second time in , the San Antonio Spurs played against Panathinaikos which the former also won In the third one which took place in Barcelona, the Los Angeles Lakers were defeated by Regal Barcelona and it was pretty surprising because the Lakers featured Kobe Bryant and other elite class players as well.
In total NBA teams have a record against Euroleague teams. Right now there are no more matches held frequently between NBA and Euroleague teams. Once in a while, you will see friendly matches, but there is no such thing as an ultimate match between the champions which would determine the world championship winner. America is both the birthplace of basketball and the eternal trendsetter in this area. The best championship, the best players, the best TV product — all this is pointless to dispute.
But is there something in which the Old World has outdone the founders of the industry? Improve this question. Ale 9, 9 9 gold badges 57 57 silver badges bronze badges. Lipata Lipata 1, 1 1 gold badge 15 15 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. BenMiller I agree that American sports fans think that they are the best but their thinking is not enough to justify this title at the official level — Ale.
Meaning that if a team from NA was to play against a team from let's say europe, it would not be just straight a stomp by the NA team — Fredy However, any of this elements does not justify the "World Champions" title. Ale Ale 9, 9 9 gold badges 57 57 silver badges bronze badges.
Frankly, that Guardian article is codswallop. The difference in standard between the NBA and even say the Euroleague is huge. NBA is a national championship — Ale. A D A D 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Jordan decided to retire after the championship season, in part because of the death of his father. The Bulls soon faltered.
Jordan decided to return to basketball in , after a short stint as a baseball player. Although he failed to lead the Bulls to the Finals in that year, he returned to pre-retirement form the next year and led the Bulls to one of the most memorable seasons ever.
The —96 Chicago Bulls finished the regular season with a record of 72—10, which was at the time, the best regular-season record of any team in the history of the NBA. They proceeded to dominate in the conference playoffs, and then went on to defeat Gary Payton , Shawn Kemp , and the Seattle SuperSonics in 6 games in the Finals to win the franchise's 4th NBA championship.
In and , the Bulls met with perhaps their most formidable foe, the Utah Jazz. The Bulls had a cast of characters that proved to be the final pieces to help Michael obtain the ultimate prize.
No-names such as Jud Buechler , Randy Brown , Bill Wennington , and Luc Longley were key players that rarely produced an astounding amount of points, but proved vital in the use of intangibles setting picks, rebounding, creating turnovers, etc.
With no foundation of youth to build upon, the Bulls were a shell of their former selves, becoming a lottery-bound team for the next six seasons, and did not make the playoffs again until In the —99 off-season, veteran stars Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley signed with the Houston Rockets, joining Hakeem Olajuwon in an attempt to win the championship, particularly Barkley.
For the next 3 years, from —, the Los Angeles Lakers , led by superstars Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal , won the NBA Finals in dominating performances, each year completing the task in one fewer game than the previous Finals. They were particularly dominating in the Finals , as they kept the lead virtually all the time in every game; only for a short while near the beginning of Game 4 did the New Jersey Nets gain any significant lead in a game.
However, the Lakers streak of championships ended when they were defeated by the Spurs in the semifinals of the playoffs, who proceeded to defeat the New Jersey Nets in the Finals.
In , veteran stars Gary Payton and Karl Malone signed with the Lakers, hoping to win a championship that had long alluded them in their careers. The Lakers were the clear favorites to win the NBA championship. However, the Detroit Pistons , under coach Larry Brown and led by defensive star Ben Wallace and offensive floor general Chauncey Billups , defeated the injury-and dissension-ridden Lakers in five games to become the first Eastern Conference team since the Bulls in to win the NBA championship.
The Pistons became the first home team to sweep games 3 through 5 in a Finals series particularly notable because the home team in those games does not have home-court advantage in the series and is usually considered the underdog in the series.
Previously three road teams did it Detroit in , Chicago in and the Lakers in In , for the first time since , the previous two champions met to decide it all, despite neither having played the other in their championship season.
The Pistons and Spurs were both considered defensive specialists, having both knocked off offensive-minded No. The first four games were blowouts for the home team, but Game 5 produced an instant classic. The game was close throughout: even as the Spurs pulled away in the third quarter the Pistons came back, and the game was tied and went into overtime after Tim Duncan missed a potential winning shot for San Antonio. In overtime, the Pistons jumped to a quick lead, but Robert Horry scored the game-winning 3-point basket with 6 seconds left.
This capped an explosive point performance by Horry off the bench, even though Horry had not scored at all until 1 second remained in the third quarter. Horry scored more than a point a minute the rest of the game.
This was a capstone to Horry's long career of similarly dramatic game-winning heroics. In Game 6 the defending champion Pistons were given little chance to recover from such a heartbreaking loss but continued a trend of excelling with their 'backs against the wall.
Key to the Detroit win was Rasheed Wallace , who returned to the game to score 7 points and garner a game-clinching steal and rebound, all in the final four minutes. The flamboyant Wallace thus earned some redemption for his gaffe at the end of Game 5 when he left the red-hot Horry unguarded on the game-winning shot.
A decisive Game 7 was now set up to conclude this suddenly gripping series, the first Finals Game 7 in 11 years when Houston defeated New York. The Pistons became the first road team to force a game 7 down in the series since the NBA switched to the format in The home team was previously in game 6 with the lead '86 Celtics, '87 Lakers, '96 Bulls, '97 Bulls, '00 Lakers and '03 Spurs and home-court for game 7.
It was the first NBA Finals since that had both Western and Eastern Conference champions making their first Finals appearance in franchise history. The Heat's clinching victory in game 6 was their first win at Dallas in four years, and they became only the third team to ever win the finals after going down , the first since the setup after Most agree that the turning point of the series was in Game 3, when the Heat overcame a 13 point deficit with less than 6 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to win The comeback was led by Dwayne Wade's 12 points in the final six minutes and a clutch outside jumpshot by once-perennial all-star Gary Payton , who was appearing in his third NBA finals.
Wade constantly earned high accolades in the form of comparisons to Michael Jordan throughout the series. His points-per-game average was better than what Jordan had in his first championship And in four games 43, 42, 36 twice , he scored as many as or more than Jordan did in his best game in the '91 Finals One difference that impacted Wade's scoring was the number of times he attempted free throws, which exceeded Jordan's average by nearly five attempts per game.
Heat coach Pat Riley became the third coach to win Championships with two different teams Alex Hannum and Phil Jackson were the first two , and the first to ever do it with two different teams as an interim head coach. It was the Cavs' Finals appearance. The Lakers returned to the Finals in , against the Boston Celtics.
Renewing the teams' rivalry, this marked the 11th time that these two teams met in the Finals, the last meeting happened in The Lakers bounced back from their loss and returned to the Finals in , where they faced the Orlando Magic, led by Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard in The Lakers met the Celtics once again in , trailing 3—2 before winning the last two at home, marking the first time in the history of the Celtics that they lost a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
Bryant won his fifth and final championship and was named the Finals MVP for the second time in his career, with the triumphs in and becoming Phil Jackson's 10th and 11th NBA titles. He also passed Auerbach's and National Hockey League coach Scotty Bowman's record for most titles as head coach in any major American professional sport.
The s saw LeBron James make eight straight NBA Finals appearances from — making him the first player since the s Celtics to go to eight straight Finals and the only player to do so with two different teams , in which he won three NBA championships with two different NBA teams: 2 with the Miami Heat in and and 1 with the Cleveland Cavaliers in The Heat were then considered the favorites by many to win multiple championships.
They appeared in the next four finals, winning two in and The Heat's second appearance in the Finals came in , where they were pitted against the Dallas Mavericks in a rematch of the Finals from five years earlier After the Thunder won Game 1 at home, the Heat won four straight games to win the series 4—1, becoming the first team to win a championship after trailing in three playoff series.
The Spurs went up 3—2 in the series, but the Heat bounced back with a Game 6 victory, notable for a game-tying three-pointer by Ray Allen over Parker in the closing seconds of regulation to send the game into overtime. The game is considered one of the greatest playoff games in NBA history. The Heat won Game 7, 95—88, to clinch the title, giving the Spurs their first Finals loss. James was named the Finals MVP for the second straight year. With James limited in Game 1 due to leg cramps, the Spurs ended the game on a 31—9 run, winning — The Heat bounced back in Game 2, but that was their only win of the series, as the Spurs won Games 3 and 4 in Miami and Game 5 at home to win the championship, their first since and the fifth and final title of Duncan's career.
Previously, no two teams in any sport have appeared in more than two consecutive finals. In the postseason, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs were eliminated in the first round by the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games while the other finalist, the Miami Heat, failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since Golden State, spearheaded by —15 MVP Stephen Curry , achieved a 67—15 record and managed to take the West, while the Cavs won the East as James, along with James Jones who played for both the Heat and Cavaliers, made their fifth straight finals appearance — the first two players to do so since the s Celtics.
The Warriors defied conventional wisdom and traditionalist ideas with a small-ball, three-point shooting, fast-paced team. The Cavs were without star Love due to an injury suffered earlier in the playoffs, and also lost Irving to injury in a Game 1 overtime loss in the NBA Finals. James rallied the Cavaliers to win Games 2 and 3, but the Warriors won the next three games after coach Steve Kerr made the adjustment of inserting the sixth man Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup in place of center Andrew Bogut , thus achieving the desired small-ball offense.
The Warriors won the title for the first time after 40 years , with Iguodala becoming the first player to win the Finals MVP award without starting a regular season game that season. During the —16 season , the Warriors broke the record for most wins in a season with a record of 73—9 and Curry won his second straight MVP award, as well as becoming the first unanimous MVP in history and shattering his own record for three-pointers made in a single season by over one hundred in the process.
The Warriors fell to a 3—1 deficit in the Western Conference Finals against a Kevin Durant-led Oklahoma City Thunder team, but won three straight elimination games to take the series and advance to a second straight Finals.
The Cavaliers finished the season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference and won their first 10 straight playoff games, ultimately defeating the Toronto Raptors 4—2 in the Eastern Conference Finals to ensure the rematch of last year's Finals.
In a key sequence with two minutes remaining in Game 7, LeBron James made a memorable chase-down block on Iguodala to keep the game tied, while Irving hit a 3-point shot over Curry a minute later to take the lead. Cleveland managed to hold on to the lead to win the title and end the city's year championship drought, with James earning his third Finals MVP honor.
In the off-season, the Warriors acquired Durant through free agency. Meanwhile, though the Cavaliers slipped to the second seed going into the playoffs, they only lost one game en route to defeating the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, setting up another rematch against the Warriors in the NBA Finals. The Warriors started strong with a 3—0 lead over the Cavs, eventually winning the series in five games with Durant being named Finals MVP.
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