04/25/24
April 10, 2009
A.B.C. Teams: All But the Championship: NBA teams that watched their window of opportunity open and close without a title.
posted by justgary to basketball at 05:25 PM - 7 comments
The Timberwolves made that list??? To say that the Wolves were really good for five years is to exaggerate by about 4 years.
posted by dviking at 08:18 PM on April 10, 2009
Well, if I recall, the Bucks clobbered the Celtics in the playoffs in 1983 (is that the right year?). I think they swept the Celts and then Fitch got shown out the door.
The Bucks in turn got leveled by the Sixers - this was the Moses Malone 4-4-4 Shermanesque march to the championship. Maybe the Bucks got one game from the Sixers. So Moses' prediction couldn't come exactly true. It might have been the only playoff game the Sixers lost.
It was the Celtics good fortune to get hosed by the Bucks. God knows what Philly would have done to them if they'd gotten past the Bucks. It would have been a whupping that would never have been forgotten in either city. Sort of like that Serb vs. Croat battle that happened 900 plus years ago that people are still getting killed over.
posted by beaverboard at 08:21 PM on April 10, 2009
Yeah it's hard tol say that the Timberwolves had a shot at the title over those five years and then qualify it with this statement: "But first round playoff exits were a problem; 7 consecutive first round exits to be exact." If you get bounced in the 1st round, you really didn't have a chance to win the championship... Matter of fact, if you don't even make it to the Finals (ahem...Phoenix, Minnesota, Sacramento, Milwaukee, New York), you never had a chance to win a championship. This article is giving too much credit to too many teams.
posted by docshredder at 09:00 PM on April 10, 2009
Utah Jazz came to mind just by reading the article's title, but I would not have thought to put Minnesota on the list.
posted by Newbie Walker at 12:57 AM on April 11, 2009
*dies a little inside*
At least my Mavs are looking less and less likely to face the Lakers in the first round this year.
But yeah, the T-Wolves? Not so much.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:03 AM on April 12, 2009
If you get bounced in the 1st round, you really didn't have a chance to win the championship...
I don't believe that's what Tom McKean meant. This is just my opinion but I'm thinking what he was implying was that the T-Wolves making it to the playoffs gave them a chance of actually winning a championship. To have them lose in the 1st round consecutively is beyond a problem and trading Garnett only helped him win it all with the Celtics.
posted by BornIcon at 01:18 PM on April 14, 2009
Sucky timing for the Bucks to be really good. They had to be really good when the Celtics were incredible. Apparently there was room for only one green team in the '80s.