As mentioned in the introductory post, we have 83 championship teams that are already into the field. Because this is not an even number, we need to get the field to a nice round number. Rather than pre-eliminating anyone, we're going to find a nice, round number of teams to add to get us to where we can group teams up.
20 of the 30 NBA franchises have won a championship, though I use an asterisk here to knock it down to 19 as the 1951 Rochester Royals are not on WhatIfSports, which knocks the Sacramento Kings' lone title off the board.
This gives me 11 teams for five spots. The Kings, since that 1951 title in Rochester, have not even made it back to the NBA Finals. Other franchises that have not had the fortune of making it to basketball's biggest stage are the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, and New Orleans Pelicans. Conveniently, that leaves us with five teams for five spots: the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, and Utah Jazz.
Also conveniently, all of these teams have made multiple trips to the Finals without a ring. So to help determine which iteration of each franchise would earn the invite, we will do a play in round.
The franchises with two appearances will play a home-and-home, with aggregate scoring determining the winner. Now because the Phoenix Suns have three Finals appearances, they have some extra legwork that goes in with each team playing four games, so if there's a tie, head to head, then point differential, will be the tiebreakers.
All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play!
Brooklyn (nee New Jersey) Nets
2002, 2003 Eastern Conference Champions
@ '03 NJ 111, '02 NJ 104
@ '02 NJ 91, '03 NJ 86
2003 New Jersey advances by aggregate (+2 point differential)
Indiana Pacers
2000, 2025 Eastern Conference Champions
@ '25 IND 107, '00 IND 75
'25 IND 95, @ '00 IND 92
2025 Indiana advances
Orlando Magic
1995, 2009 Eastern Conference Champions
'95 ORL 103, @ '09 ORL 97
@ '95 ORL 108, '09 ORL 88
1995 Orlando advances
Phoenix Suns
1976, 1993, 2021 Western Conference Champions
@ '93 PHX 109, '76 PHX 100
@ '21 PHX 124, '93 PHX 109
@ '76 PHX 112, '21 PHX 107
'93 PHX 109, @ '76 PHX 96
@ '93 PHX 109, '21 PHX 70
@ '21 PHX 129, '76 PHX 102
1993 Phoenix advances by 3-1 record
Utah Jazz
1997, 1998 Western Conference Champions
'97 UTA 116, @ '98 UTA 100
@ '97 UTA 98, '98 UTA 88
1997 Utah advances
Congratulations to the 2003 Nets, 2025 Pacers, 1995 Magic, 1993 Suns, and 1997 Jazz on advancing to the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions! The pools for the tournament will be revealed tomorrow.
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