NBA Tournament of Champions Preview

With the 2013 NBA season behind us and another champion crowned, the idea of legacy comes to mind. "Where does this Miami Heat team fit into the picture of the greatest teams of all time?" It's a question I've been pondering for much of the season, and with this season done, I can try to answer it.

Naturally, the best way to solve this would be to put these teams on a basketball court and have them duke it out, but time travel doesn't exist, so we have to go with the next-closest thing: simulating games.

Historically, the league known as the National Basketball Association has been around since the mid 1940's, but wasn't officially known as the NBA until the 1949-1950 season. When you add up the numbers, with the Heat winning the 2013 title, we now have 64 "NBA" champions. Convenient. Thus, I present the NBA Tournament of Champions.

Unlike the Death to the BCS Playoffs, this tournament is entirely objective in terms of how teams get in and also in terms of seeding. I had to think long and hard about how to arrange the bracket. Going by every 16 or even every 8 years as a divider didn't really work from a historical sense, so I debated about using geography as the barrier. However, more champions have come from the Eastern Conference than have from the West, so I tried to come up with numerous ways to balance out the numbers, and none of them really clicked with me. Ultimately, I just decided to "seed" everyone the fairest way I could: random number generators.

While this may not give us the "top 2 teams" in the championship round, the two teams that win 5 best-of-seven series will have more than proven themselves worthy, given the level of competition they're facing. There really aren't any "easy" matchups here with all the talent in the world. Organization-wise, I'm breaking this 64-team field into 8 "brackets" of 8 teams apiece that will feed into the Quarterfinal of Champions, and ultimately onto the semis and the Championship of Champions. Each bracket has been named for a prominent player in each bracket who (except for 1 bracket) has at least 2 of his title teams present. Students of NBA history will probably not be surprised then to see that half of the brackets are named for legendary Celtics (considering the sheer number of Celtic titles), but a lot of other greats are present. Below is a breakdown of each bracket.
Larry Bird Bracket                    Tim Duncan Bracket
'94 Houston Rockets                    '05 San Antonio Spurs
'51 Rochester Royals                    '98 Chicago Bulls
'88 Los Angeles Lakers                '78 Washington Bullets
'81 Boston Celtics                        '10 Los Angeles Lakers
'86 Boston Celtics                        '09 Los Angeles Lakers
'02 Los Angeles Lakers                '07 San Antonio Spurs
'82 Los Angeles Lakers                '57 Boston Celtics
'75 Golden State Warriors            '11 Dallas Mavericks

John Havlicek Bracket              Magic Johnson Bracket
'55 Syracuse Nationals                  '79 Seattle Supersonics
'69 Boston Celtics                         '61 Boston Celtics
'12 Miami Heat                             '97 Chicago Bulls
'67 Philadelphia 76ers                    '04 Detroit Pistons
'70 New York Knicks                   '66 Boston Celtics
'74 Boston Celtics                         '85 Los Angeles Lakers
'03 San Antonio Spurs                   '83 Philadelphia 76ers
'01 Los Angeles Lakers                 '59 Boston Celtics

Bill Russell Bracket                   George Mikan Bracket
'71 Milwaukee Bucks                    '64 Boston Celtics
'65 Boston Celtics                         '52 Minneapolis Lakers
'99 San Antonio Spurs                   '91 Chicago Bulls
'60 Boston Celtics                         '53 Minneapolis Lakers
'00 Los Angeles Lakers                 '50 Minneapolis Lakers
'68 Boston Celtics                          '73 New York Knicks
'58 St. Louis Hawks                       '06 Miami Heat
'72 Los Angeles Lakers                  '89 Detroit Pistons

Bob Cousy Bracket                     Michael Jordan Bracket
'80 Los Angeles Lakers                  '92 Chicago Bulls
'08 Boston Celtics                           '13 Miami Heat
'77 Portland Trailblazers                 '93 Chicago Bulls
'76 Boston Celtics                           '56 Philadelphia Warriors
'96 Chicago Bulls                            '84 Boston Celtics
'62 Boston Celtics                           '90 Detroit Pistons
'63 Boston Celtics                           '95 Houston Rockets
'54 Minneapolis Lakers                   '87 Los Angeles Lakers

For a full look at the bracket, click here.

I'll try to get a round done every week or 2 in an attempt to keep the time frame moving about as long as you'd expect a series to last. Given the sheer size, I'll probably only do a couple brackets in one post until we work our way down to fewer teams left. If you want to pick out winners, you can do so here. Registration is required, but is free and they don't spam your email. (For reference/full disclosure: I'm picking the '97 Bulls.)

Should be a fun few months of basketball action as we crown a "Best of All Time"!