NBA Tournament of Champions: Michael Jordan Bracket First Round

It's been almost 2 weeks, and we're finally down to the end of the first round of the Tournament of Champions. 28 champions have already fallen. 4 more will fall today. How many will fall in the bracket of the Greatest of All Time?

My friend Nathaniel of Someone Still Loves You, Alberto Riveron fame was amazed by this bracket and how stacked it is. I do think the Russell Bracket is more loaded than this one, but MJ's is pretty top heavy. And we're going to lose a legendary team in the first round thanks to the matchup I couldn't wait for (but amazingly, the random number generator pushed this bracket to the end).

As a reminder, all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court being decided by best overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. And the series I most wanted is the one on top. Let's get to it.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Bob Cousy Bracket First Round

I started Confessions of a Sportscaster back in 2011, primarily as a portfolio builder, but also because I wanted to do something with my love of sports, so I started writing about them. Any topic was up for grabs. Even starting to run simulations became a source of entertainment for me. And it's as part of one of these grand simulations (the biggest I've done) that I find myself on post number 200. Seems only fitting that it be in the middle of an exciting round of basketball.

This is a Celtics-heavy bracket with 4 entries from that franchise, including their most recent title, yet there's no time paradox here yet since there's no Celtic/Celtic matchup. At least, not yet. In order to find out if we do, we're doing best of seven series (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court being decided by the best overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Larry Bird Bracket First Round

The 1980's were a fun decade for basketball, weren't they? Granted, I was only around for less than 40 days of the 80's but still. Those Bird/Magic duels made for great theater, and hopefully this tournament idea is making for great theater for you.

Larry Bird gets two of his title teams into his namesake bracket, and gets a rivalry matchup for one of them. That all comes after the jump. As a reminder, these series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court advantage being decided by overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are once again provided by WhatIfSports.com. You ready? I am.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Magic Johnson Bracket First Round

We're halfway through the opening round of probably my biggest project thus far for COAS. Slowly but surely, we're weeding out the weaker of the NBA champions since 1950. Nothing really too shocking thus far though.

After a layoff for the weekend from posting, I'm back at it this week with the other 4 brackets that have yet to play (even though in reality, they'd be playing right now and would have over the weekend, which is why I'm stretching this out). Once again, these series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1) format. Home court is decided based on overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Bill Russell Bracket First Round

When I set up the NBA Tournament of Champions, I found that the fairest way to set everything up was to randomly seed all the title teams. Of course, this can set up some soft brackets (like Wednesday's) while also building some really tough brackets. This one definitely falls into the latter category.

Three of Bill Russell's title teams are here, as well as Wilt's second championship squad and Kareem's first. Some stacked squads here, so now we have to take these guys to the simulator and see what happens.

As in the other brackets, all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1) with home court determined by overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's go.

NBA Tournament of Champions: George Mikan Bracket First Round

Back in the 1950's, George Mikan dominated the game with his interior presence and skill near the basket. Rule changes definitely made a lot of his style obsolete, though his offensive skill set is still taught today. But how would his Minneapolis squads fare against other title teams, both around his time and well after it? That's largely what this tournament was designed to find out.

Today we have four new matchups following the same pattern as the first couple days. Where applicable, I will try to adjust lineups to accurately reflect what they would have looked like in a situation like this (though yesterday I didn't really have to tweak anything). All series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format) with home court going to the team with the better overall (regular season plus playoffs) record. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play some basketball.

NBA Tournament of Champions: John Havlicek Bracket First Round

If yesterday's post was any indication, I think spreading this over 2 weeks was the right call. 3 of the 4 series went at least 6 games, so the parity is definitely there. You know, unless you're the 1978 Washington Bullets (though really, they were one of the weaker teams to win a title at least based on record). Today we go into the Celtic half of the bracket with a good blend of classic and modern teams assigned here. We also get a first glimpse at one of the most scrutinized athletes on a huge stage against one who is well-acclaimed, even if he lost a lot of big games. We also get a fun matchup from last decade that already kind of happened in the first round yesterday. A lot of fun in this bracket. Let's get to it.

Once again, these series go best of seven, with home court decided by the team with a higher winning percentage (regular season plus playoffs), and simulations are done by WhatIfSports.com.