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.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Bill Russell Bracket Second Round

Going in, this bracket was probably one of the more stacked brackets out there. The chaff of this bracket though was promptly taken out; however, only one of Bill Russell's title teams that showed up here remains, and it has a tough task ahead. The common denominator among the four teams left in this bracket is the all time great centers these rosters contain. Russell. Kareem. Shaq. Wilt. Only two of these pillars can support their team to the next round.

In order to get there, we will again play best of seven series (2-2-1-1-1 format). Home court advantage is determined by overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Here's how we got to this battle of titans. The time has come.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Larry Bird Bracket Second Round

Larry Legend got to have his name on a pretty good bracket overall, I'd say. Adding a couple Laker teams to the mix certainly helped this one gain some credibility, even with Bird's '86 team holding serve in Round 1. We also had what I pegged as one of the bigger upsets with Rick Barry's '75 Warriors team gutting out a Game 7 win over the '82 Lakers, setting up a fun series there. The other one sees a battle of all time great centers. Should be fun.

As a refresher, all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format), with home court advantage going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. If you want to refer back to the first round results from this bracket, they're here. Let's get to it.

NBA Tournament of Champions: George Mikan Bracket Second Round

Maybe our viewpoint of today is right that contemporary athletes are bigger, faster, stronger, and all around better than the athletes of yesteryear (to paraphrase my dad); maybe they really aren't. If they aren't, the George Mikan Bracket certainly doesn't help that argument. Though the man inspired a drill all big men should take part in on a regular basis and forced rule changes in the old NBA (like the widening of the lane), his teams couldn't hang with the more modern champions, even if their ace did all he could (and really, he did). Still standing in Mikan's bracket are some teams that came around only a generation after his heyday, and a couple teams that came about during the golden era. Only two of these can advance.

As a reminder, all series in the Tournament of Champions are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1) 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, here's the first round results. Let's play.

NBA Tournament of Champions: Bob Cousy Bracket Second Round

It's been two weeks, and half of the NBA Champions since 1950 have been eliminated from consideration for the greatest team of all time. I've reset the order in which I'm doing the brackets, hence why the Cooz gets another post despite being here on Wednesday. (Since a best of seven series would normally go 2 weeks, I wanted to keep the timeline consistent).

I've posted the results from each round on my Facebook once these posts go up, and it's garnered some interest among family and friends who grew up with basketball. While I certainly saw a tendency, I didn't really look too close into something my dad saw an interest in:

"One observation on your first round. We tend to view today's athletes as bigger, stronger, and faster (i.e. better) than their predecessors, and that was reflected in your simulations. The more recent team won 75% (24 of 32) of the series played."

I think the Mikan Bracket was an excellent example of this; 3 of his Lakers title teams were in there, and none of them advanced. As we get closer to the title round, I think era will matter less and less since we're weeding out the weaker teams now. A couple friends from my WONC days liked reading it too and we ended up discussing the merits of using simulations versus playing games out on the hardwood in reality. Obviously this would be my preferred way of doing this, but sadly time travel doesn't exist (as far as I know), so I'm stuck with this method. It may not be perfect, but it's the best we've got.

So onto the second round we go. My dad's theory gets put to the test immediately with two more modern teams going up against classic title squads. Same format holds true this round: all series are best of seven (2-2-1-1-1 format) with home court advantage going to the team with the better overall record (regular season plus playoffs). All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. For reference, here's the first round results. Let's move onward.