Cleveland – Like an old country club, the NBA’s dynasty club is small and elitist.
Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics were the charter members, winning 11 of their 16 NBA championships from 1956-69. Next came Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers winning five titles in the 1980s. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls joined the club by winning six championships in the 1990s. And lastly, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers’ three-peat from 2000-02 as the most recent dynasty club member.
Depending on whom you ask, Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs are next in line. The Spurs would win their fourth title since 1999 with a victory in Game 4 of the NBA Finals tonight over host Cleveland.
About the only debate left in this series is the Spurs’ place in history.
“They don’t have the greatest athletes in the world, they don’t have the greatest shooters in the world, but they have probably the greatest team in the world, and that’s what this sport is all about,” Cleveland star Le- Bron James said Wednesday. “It’s not about an individual. It’s not like tennis; it’s not like golf. You have to have one unit. You have to have everybody on the same page at the same time to win basketball games.”
Top of the class
Said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich: “When I think of dynasties, two come to my mind real quick: UCLA and Bill Russell. Everything else is just talk after that.”
Will Perdue played on the Bulls’ first three championship teams and was on the Spurs’ first title team in 1999. His dynasty ranking is led by the Celtics under Russell. He ranks the Spurs last among the five teams mentioned above. The reason Perdue ranked the Spurs that way is because their championships – 1999, 2003, 2005 and possibly 2007 – are spread out.
“(Consistency) carries a little bit more weight,” said Perdue, now an NBA analyst for ESPN Radio. “Isn’t repeating supposed to be the hardest thing to do for all the necessary factors?
“Everyone wants to use the word ‘dynasty.’ I don’t want to use the word dynasty. But on a scale of 1 through 10, I say the Celtics, Lakers and Bulls are a 9.5. I say the Spurs are a 9.”
Utah guard Derek Fisher is a proud member of the recent championship Lakers teams. He attended the Spurs’ 75-72 win in Game 3 on Tuesday and admitted to getting a little emotional about his Lakers past as he saw a giant, replica Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy upon his arrival in front of Quicken Loans Arena.
Lakers’ legacy
“The interesting thing was (Tuesday night) was the first time I was ever in a city where the Finals were going on and I was not a participant,” Fisher said. “And so I was driving up in the cab last night and you see the big, gold trophy on the corner, the signs. I could feel my jaw getting a little tight, and there was some tension there.”
But as much as Fisher respects his Lakers teams three- peating, he will be more impressed if the Spurs win their fourth title since 1999.
“I hate to say it, but they are probably surpassing us to be honest,” Fisher said. “We had that great four- or five-year period. You have to kind of (name) the Bulls, Celtics and Lakers teams of the ’80s that dominated a 10-year period.
“Obviously, the Bulls won six out of eight years. The Celtics won like every year in the ’60s. I can probably say they are surpassing (the Lakers) in recent dynasties. They’ve become the class in this league, no question about it.”
Spurs forward Robert Horry is a dynasty unto himself. Another championship would give him seven total through his career with Houston (two), the Lakers (three) and San Antonio (one). Although Horry acknowledged that the Spurs might have surpassed the recent Lakers dynasty, he doesn’t think they match the Celtics and Lakers of the 1980s and the Bulls of the 1990s.
But come 2008, Horry could see the Spurs in that group if they win this year and repeat next year. With Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and a solid supporting cast, they’ll be among the favorites next season.
“I don’t look it as a dynasty yet,” Horry said. “You look at what the Bulls did or the Celtics did, those were dynasties. …
“If we win it this year, there’s still two years left to do something. I think six (in 10 years) makes you a dynasty; five makes you every other year.”
CAVALIERS
Playoff statistics
Player MPG PPG RPG APG
James 44.5 25.1 8.2 7.8
Ilgauskas 32.8 12.8 9.5 0.8
Gooden 30.4 11.4 7.8 1.1
Hughes 35.5 11.3 3.9 2.4
Pavlovic 31.3 9.5 2.6 1.7
Gibson 18.9 8.2 1.6 0.8
Varejao 22.3 5.8 6.1 0.5
Marshall 10.3 3.4 2.1 0.2
Da. Jones 12.0 1.7 0.8 0.9
Snow 12.8 1.6 1.5 1.5
Newble 1.7 0.0 0.2 0.2
Pollard 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Team 242.6 89.2 43.4 17.2
Opp. 242.6 86.8 38.9 19.5
SPURS
Playoff statistics
Player MPG PPG RPG APG
Duncan 36.6 22.7 11.3 3.3
Parker 37.5 20.6 3.2 6.0
Ginobili 29.9 16.1 5.5 3.7
Finley 27.5 11.6 2.9 1.2
Bowen 34.0 6.7 4.0 1.2
Oberto 20.5 5.5 4.9 0.7
Horry 20.1 4.5 3.9 1.6
Barry 12.2 3.3 1.3 1.1
Elson 11.5 3.3 3.3 0.1
Vaughn 10.4 2.2 0.4 1.4
Bonner 2.8 0.8 0.3 0.0
Udrih 2.5 0.3 0.1 0.1
Team 240.0 96.3 40.4 20.2
Opp. 240.0 92.2 40.6 18.3
SPOTLIGHT ON LEBRON JAMES
The Cavaliers forward is averaging 21.3 points per game in the Finals and shooting poorly from the field. Cleveland is a loss from being eliminated, but the all-star doesn’t believe he needs to get super-aggressive at the offensive end. “I can’t change my game, what got us here,” James said. “Everything I’ve been doing is the reason why we’re here. And our team, everything we’ve been doing, is the reason we’re here. We don’t want to try to change anything.”
Cleveland guard Larry Hughes is a game-time decision to play tonight after missing Game 3 with a lingering left foot injury. “I’m not ruling anything out,” Hughes said. “It’s always been based on what is best for the team.” … Cavs guard Eric Snow was on the 1996 Seattle SuperSonics team that is the only team in Finals history to force a Game 6 after losing the first three games. Seattle lost the series in six games to Chicago. “It was either lay it all on the line, play your guts out, throw all the agendas out the window or stay in the locker room,” Snow said. “That was basically the approach.”
– Marc J. Spears, Denver Post staff writer
