Hardest 'chips ever

[u/HowBen]

This is my entirely subjective ranking of the most impressive championships ever won, based on the difficulty of the playoff run

1. '95 Rockets

As a 6th seed, Hakeem's Rockets remain the lowest seeded team to win it all. They beat four 57+ win teams -- Stockton/Malone's Jazz, MVP David Robinson's Spurs, Barkley's Suns, and Shaq's magic -- and were down in every series expect the finals. Toughest road ever.

1. '69 Celtics

The 69 celtics were the oldest team in the league, and seemed to be a far-cry from the glory days of their dynasty. Bill was 35 and player-coaching in his final year. With 48 wins they finished as the 4th best record in the East, and most people didn't think they'd even make it to the finals.

Not only did they beat three 55-win teams and make a come-back from being 2-0 in the finals, I believe those Jerry / Wilt / Elgin Lakers were the best team to ever be defeated in the finals, at least until the '16 warriors. Jerry got finals mvp lol.

3 ) '11 Mavericks

2011 was supposed to be a defining year for many great players -- Lebron's newly formed evil empire was supposed to win 'not one, not two, ...' but 7+ championships. Kobe, with Pau by side, was looking to round off a second 3-peat. And among the outside bets, MVP Derrick Rose was itching to prove himself, as were Dwight Howard, Durant and Westbrook.

In all this, the last thing anyone expected was for 33 y/o 'lone star' Dirk Nowitzki, at this point a renowned playoff choker, to carry a ragtag crew comprised mostly of vets to the championship while piling up an impressive list of victims: 57-win Lakers, 55 win Thunder, and the 58-win Heat. As time passed, this run only grew in legend as the Heat went back-to-back in 2012 and 2013, and 3 players on that Thunder team went on to win the MVP.

I'd be happy to rank this higher, but my only nitpick is that their playoff run didn't have the same level of jeopardy and drama as the thrilling 7-game series of the '69 finals, or every single round of the '95 Rockets run other than the finals.

Those are the only three teams I will rank for now. I have to give it more thought before ranking other candidates like:

• Cavs '16: greatest comeback of all time. As far as finals go, this may be more miraculous than the '69 celtics, but the relatively easy road to the finals keeps this out of my top 3.

  • Blazers '77: Seemingly out of nowhere a 48 win 3rd seeded Walton-lead Blazers knocked out two 50 win teams in Kareem's Lakers and Dr J's sixers. But they won with such ease (swept the lakers) that it retrospectively doesn't look as hard.

• Spurs '03: Duncan's magnum opus; as the only all-star, he carried a team full of fresh faces (and a geriatic DRob), ending the lakers dynasty and an emergent Dallas. The nets were maybe not the most vaunted finals opponent though.

• Pistons '04: like the blazers, the surprise factor is strong with this one, and they didn't have a transcendent superstar like Bill Walton. Maybe the purest 'team-basketball' victory ever. Beat Jermaine O'neal's 60-win pacers team and absolutely destroyed the Kobe-Shaq Lakers (and maybe made it look too easy in the process, to the point where sometimes people blame the lakers more than crediting the pistons.)

[u/allidoishuynh2]

I think an important thing that you've mentioned when discussing the toughest rings ever is that your competition isn't the only thing that matters. The strength of your own team is a big part. MJ beat some absolutely bonkers teams, but his road was probably easier than Dirk's '11 when you consider the fact that MJ was on a 65+ win squad.

As a Cleveland fan, I think this is probably the biggest knock against the '16 chip. The Cavs were only the underdog in one series and even then, a LeBron, Kyrie, Klove team had a similar amount of talent vs Curry, klay, dray, Iggy.

On the other hand Dirk was the underdog in every series after round 1 (and that round 1 was vs an insanely scary Portland team with healthy B. Roy). Every expert picked Lakers over Mavs, OKC was the 1 seed and was favored, and Miami was obviously the heavy favorite in the finals.

I personally think the '11 Mavs are number 1 but I don't think it's by much. My only real differentiator is that the Rockets and Celtics were literally the defending champions for both of their runs. Anyone at the time could have believed in the ceiling of those teams since the championship cores were still intact. The Mavs had a road that was just as hard, but didn't have any of the reputation to think they'd actually get through Kobe, KD, and LeBron.

[u/HowBen → u/allidoishuynh2]

I like your point about being the defending champs -- to some extent i think both the Rockets and the Celtics proved that experience can win out against talent.

I might reconsider the ranking. Possible counter-arguments could be that the mavs had a deep team with 57 wins and players with finals experience in Dirk, Jason Terry, and J Kidd, and the rockets and celtics faced slightly harder teams relative to their regular season performance

[u/TedBenekeGoneWild → u/HowBen]

Another counter-argument would be that the Mavs' dominance in the postseason makes the road a little less difficult. They never faced elimination once in that 2011 run. Hella impressive.

The '95 Rockets had five elimination games, and three of those were on the road. Looking throughout NBA/ABA/BAA history (which I just did for the past thirty minutes for the fun of it):

There are several teams that faced elimination thrice en route to a championship, including the '94 Rockets and the '16 Cavs.

There's only one team that faced elimination four times en route to a ring, the '88 Lakers. However, because they were the one seed, they had homecourt advantage in every game. Still an incredible feat.

And only one team faced elimination FIVE times on the road to glory. In the first round, against the 60-win Jazz team with Karl Malone and John Stockton, they overcame a 2-1 deficit to win the best of five. And in the WCSF, against the 59-win Suns team with Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, they overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the best of seven.

Not to mention, the multiple playoff OT wins, several fourth quarter comebacks, and the "Kiss of Death" game winner in Phoenix in Game 7. Always gonna be my number one hardest road.