Dynasty comparison

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Posted: Sunday June 14, 1998 08:16 PM

Who had the best NBA dynasty? It's hard to argue against the Celtics' 11 titles in 13 years from 1957 through 1969. But here's another measuring stick: average wins in dynasty years. Dynasty years are viewed as generally successive years when a given team was an NBA champion or finalist. Even including the 147 that Jordan missed due to his baseball experiment, the Bulls' eight-year run from the 1990-91 season to the present stacks up in terms of average wins per season with the best NBA dynasties of all time:

Team            Years              Avg.    Titles       
Celtics   '80-'81 to '86-'87      61.6       3 
Bulls     '90-'91 to '97-'98      61.3       6 
Lakers   '79-'80 to '87-'88       59.3       5 
Celtics   '58-'59 to '68-'69      56.6      10

Note 1: The Minneapolis Lakers dynasty of the late 40's and arly 50's was not considered for this comparison because back then the NBA season was as short as 60 games long. Those Lakers teams won five NBA championships.

Note 2: While the Celtics won the 1957 crown, the season was only 72 games long. Thus, for this comparison, that year was not considered.