NBA Tournament of Champions: Michael Jordan Bracket Finals

I know it's been like a month since I started this tournament, but I'm still kind of in mourning. I have a feeling somewhere, LeBron fanboys are going on about how "LeBron is the greatest ever! Michael wouldn't be able to take him!" based on the most recent Heat team taking out both the '92 and '93 Bulls (something my friend Nathaniel has also been lamenting). They get a totally different monster this time in one of the Celtics' 80's champs. Should be fun.

To remind those of you new to the process, this series will be a best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. If you want to see how we got here, first and second round results can be found at the provided links. Let's get cracking.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Larry Bird Bracket Finals

Much of NBA history is the history of the Lakers and the Celtics. With more than half the representatives in the Tournament of Champions between them, it's no surprise that a Lakers/Celtics matchup has occurred plenty of times so far. If you count one matchup where the Lakers were still in Minneapolis, we've had eight such showdowns between these two illustrious franchises, including six in the opening round. It seems only fitting, really, that in Larry Bird's bracket, we have a final between the Lakers and Celtics. Their ninth clash commences in a moment.

As a reminder, this series will be a best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Results from the first and second round can be found at the corresponding links. Let Showtime commence!

NBA Tournament of Champions: John Havlicek Bracket Finals

If you were to look at this field of 64 teams, and I told you to pick the 16 best teams out of that list, odds are you'd end up picking a lot of the teams that are still standing after 2 rounds of action.

Normally there would be an issue with having brackets have matchups so close together, but the theory behind spreading out the tournament as I have is to simplify my posting of the results while having the simulated tournament technically take 2 weeks per round, as the NBA does in reality (since there have been plenty of seven-game series). As such we get back to back posts about Hondo's bracket. Unfortunately for John Havlicek, his teams are out and he has to watch two much more recent squads battle it out to win this bracket.

To figure out the winner, we will play a best of seven series (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. You can click on the corresponding links for results from the first and second round. Here's how the finale plays out.

NBA Tournament of Champions: John Havlicek Bracket Second Round

We're onto the final day of Round Two of the Tournament of Champions. Starting with the past 64 champs, 46 have already fallen in some great series with some instant classics were we actually playing these games in reality. Sadly, time travel doesn't exist and I'm stuck doing it this way. We have a couple more modern teams going up against a pair of Celtic championship squads from back in the day. Only two of the four can advance.

To determine that, we're doing best of seven series (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court advantage going to whichever team has the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Last round's results can be found here. Let's close entry to the Sweet 16.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Michael Jordan Bracket Second Round

With two brackets to go in this round, we've already seen some titans fall. Other legends still stand, including a few strong teams in this bracket. Apparently WhatIfSports already did a heavy simulation series involving the last 26 NBA Champions and found this year's Heat team to be the best. But are they? They get tested again this round, so we'll find out soon.

51 sims of a ton of matchups is a LOT of work, so we're sticking to our guns: best of seven series (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are still done by WhatIfSports.com. If you want to see how we got here, the first round results are here. Let's light this candle.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Magic Johnson Bracket Second Round

When thinking of namesakes for each bracket, this one was the hardest. I already had half the bracket named for Celtics and wanted to even it out some, so Magic got his name on one. He showed why he deserved it a couple weeks ago as his team was one of four in the bracket to advance, but new challenges await this week. A battle of 80's titans awaits, as does Seattle's lone title team coming back from the dead to face a juggernaut. Uh oh.

As usual, all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Here are the results from last round. If you're ready, I am too. Let's go.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Tim Duncan Bracket Second Round

It was a fairly nice weekend of catching my breath from all the basketball chaos/trying to fight off the beginning of a cold which hopefully isn't as bad as I feared it was for part of Saturday. It won't stop me from getting back to the second round though.

This bracket is very recency-heavy, and probably had the best example of my dad's theory from the first round. When I set this bracket up, I was torn between naming it after Duncan and after Kobe. Considering the two Laker teams Kobe was the definitive alpha dog on that won titles are both still standing in this bracket, maybe I picked wrong. It's too early to tell though; Duncan's one remaining title team still stands, and on the other side, the most recent Texas title winner challenges Kobe and crew.

As a refresher, all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court going to the team with the best overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. If you want to see how we got here so far, first round results are here. Let's get moving.