Which Teams Were "Lucky" to Win an NBA Championship? 

crowd saying "that's right" in the background lol

Yes. But the champagne doesn't taste as good when you win by beating 2 bottom barrel play-in teams who took out the actual good competition on the way there, for you.

@@Chapa-pa-pabut… if those “bottom of the barrel” teams beat those “contenders” then wouldn’t the contenders lose to contenders. This is such a dumb take. You think they care how the champagne tastes?

@@Chapa-pa-paif they were actually good competition they wouldn’t have lost 🤡🤡🦃

@@LuisFernandoAraiza No, because they were relying on historic luck shooting from 3. As soon as that went away, they reverted to the being the loser bottom barrel teams they are all season long.

Tim Donaghy approves this message.

For the old heads: 1993 Suns vs SuperSonics, game 7

Lakers vs Blazers too

Make your free throws

That was literally the point he was trying to make.. that luck cannot be blamed for winning a championship because it is always part of the game

Staying healthy in any contact sport is lucky. Avoiding bad matchups is also lucky. Styles make fights.

I think you missed the point, people say that the players that got "lucky" should have an asterisk on their championships. His entire argument here is everything happens for a reason to the point where people may perceive it as luck and it will always be involved in sports, or in anything really.

Its more that the “luck” in basketball is incorporated into the game if luck is part of the game then you cant be lucky to win. You just won.

its not luck its just basketball, if you hoop you know.

It’s the immaturity of NBA fans, who are much younger and generally less intelligent than fans of other sports. It’s been overtaken by internet troll culture

Everything has an asterisk so nothing should. But most people don’t understand or are trolling

The asterisk argument is just made by fans and/or pundits who didn't want that particular team to win.

so true

its made up by dumbass teenagers of NBA Twitter, serious and sane people value each championship

I think it's mainly because it was so different than a normal year. Shorter regular season, no home/away advantage. And everyone living in Disney world. Yes everyone was under the same conditions but those aren't the same conditions the last 80 seasons have been under...

I’ve heard someone argue that the extra rest helped the Lakers more than other teams because of the age/injury proneness of their stars compared to other teams

Prior to the bubble we saw teams take months off of not playing. This would disadvantage any teams that made trades that year at the deadline from building synergy on the court. It also provided teams built around older players(and in the case of the Lakers, AD who was "injury prone" back then) much needed rest. And when you got the 2020 Suns going flawless in the bubble you know sum aint right.

There morons

If you watched the bubble you know it was the best basketball that we’ve seen in a while.

Yup, I even remember Steph curry saying it requires a little bit of luck to win a championship.

Of course you have to be a little lucky or not get unlucky, however that's part of the game and everyone is playing the same game.

Welcome to life

You are not lucky but you need luck

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" - some old dude

that championship was lucky and it was proven what have they done since they won that fluke championship? lose to a fraud celtics team in the second round and get destroyed by an 8th seed in round 1 with essentially the same team. They would've never won if the nets were healthy you know and i know it

LoL 😂 bucks were lucky and shouldn't have won that title. Kyrie and kd assaulted the bucks defense and bud had no clear game plan.

The bucks were also lucky after that freak injury in the conference finals I think against the hawks

If not for Giannis playing through his injury they shouldn't have won it. That's called sacrifice. Everything comes with a price. Now Giannis is suffering the aftermath of that injury every season. The championship will only be given to those who are willing to do the extreme to win it.

Yes they were, it took two nets stars being hurt to barely lose, Bucks weren't the best team. A healthy Lakers, Nuggets or even Celtics probably beat them that year if AD, Murray and Brown weren't injured as well. I don't think it's crazy to say if everyone is healthy they were the 5th best team in the league. And those injuries probably don't happen if it wasn't post covid with a super short rushed season that led to that many injuries. I don't think it's a coincidence they haven't sniffed a ring since then and don't look like even the best team in their conference this year either, let along the NBA.

Perfectly said

the undermining of champs who people give asterisks to is unfair because if they dont win, they "choked". so they are put in a dilemma situation where its luck or choke. rather be considered lucky then a choker.

Losing both KD and Klay in their prime is not luck for the Raptors, it’s lottery.

you have to beat 4 teams 4 times to win it. you can get lucky 1 or 2 games, but in best of 7 best team usually wins. You can also get lucky and have refs give you few unexisting calls. If you are not LA Lakers. Then there is no luck involved. Refs simply give you a series when you struggle

Perfect explanation

Some asterisks might just be bigger than others, tho

@@MP-sy4zc you have to be dumb to think that

Not on that great Sixers team with Malone, Dr. J., Bobby Jones, Andrew Tony and Maurice Cheeks. They lost 1 playoff game.

​@@MP-sy4zcAgreed, like the warriors who added KD to a 73-9 team and they needed cp3 to get injured to win a second one. The warriors 2015 without Kyrie and Kevin Love. The 2016 for Andrew Bogut. Bucks championships with all the injuries. For sure the 2014 championship of spurs because CB and DW were half injured and cannot sustain their performance. Jokic faced a LeBron with a foot issue. We can literally find a reason to discredit everything man

Idk about that I feel like if everybody is available to play then there’s no asterisks.

Hospital ring

I couldn't believe he was back so soon. His knee bending the wrong way like that was nasty to even watch. He's definitely great with bouncing back from injuries, but hopefully they don't catch up to him later in life.

Giannis was so unbelievable in that finals that idk how anyone could discredit him

@@jeremyfuller7730life insurance ring

@@jeremyfuller7730 grow a brain

Bro every Torontonian remembers where they were when he hit that one

⁠@@erniejohnson677Every Canadian remembers where they were when Kawhi made that shot

@@henryshhsu what city you from

To me, the luckiest titles are the lockout ones because it's different than most the other teams in history. '99 Spurs were considered lucky until they proved they could win under normal circumstances. The '12 Heat seemed lucky too, but that went away quick when they went right back to the finals the next year. '20 was lucky. AD has consistently been injured a lot his whole career whenever it's a regular NBA season. In '20 that 3-4 month rest obviously made a difference cause damn near every single other normal season, something on him breaks. Only times I think injuries should be possibly considered lucky is when it happens when you're clearly winning a series, an injury happens, then all of sudden you're clearly losing a series.

The Warriors would've won the next year though without all those injuries they suffered.

@@guanoguy4800 What injuries?

​@@planetpeterson2824 bogut and iggy. They played a BIG ROLE in that team. Iggy missed 1 or 2 games. bogut missed a part of game 5 and the rest of the series. PLUs draymond suspension

of course people wouldn't agree with this as their hate can be clouded by logic

Bron was unreal cuz he had to be, he doesn't replicate that performance with both Kyrie and Klove on the court

If they were available though, he probably doesn't get those numbers, but then he doesn't need to do as much and his efficiency can be higher because there will be more single coverages. It really is hard to say, it definitely would have been a more fun series though

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@Lloyd00and? MJ doesn’t replicate his legendary 63 vs bird’s celtics if he had other stars/great teammates either but his chances of actually winning still would’ve SKYROCKETED 1,000x with em lol, same exact thing for 2015 bron

​​@@Lloyd00hmmmm yet he had the most dominant individual Finals in '16 with Kyrie and Love playing 🤔 Love avgd 8 PPG and 6 RPG in that '16 Finals lol. Lebron led every player who touched the court on BOTH teams in PPG/RPG/APG/SPG/BPG ......while playing against the league MVP and also a DPOY in his prime.... UNREAL

Injuries aren’t always because of luck. They usually happen because the player isn’t in good enough physical shape.

@@michaelj9277lmao bruh shut up

@@michaelj9277Absolute brain dead take.

​@@TheGreatestJediOfAllTimefacts what he talking about it's sports

It’s not luck, you could say they were more favorable to win but you still need to play the game.

4.5 games out of 6 and Toronto was still smashing them the series turned around the 15 minutes Kevin Durant played in game 5 it just opened up the spacing drastically I think if KD doesn't play that game 5 it would've been a Toronto blowout closing that series out in 5 games

Yep, stan panicked And then Jameer didn’t foul Fisher and let him tie game 3

For sure knows how to bring people to the comments lol

engagement brings in money and views. 🚮

@@jzking2k115exactly but trolls will still comment, bring him revenue and they still think JJ sees their comments which actually he only sees 0.01% of them 😂

Facts

Funny how an actual NBA player can explain something but a keyboard warrior can still cope

@@LanceNoirfr blud didn’t even play in the nba yet most the time those are the people talking about these things 🤷dumb take from the first comment

Bubble championship

@@B0ne8you mean the bubble championship should be worth two rings because the winner was at a disadvantage?

​@@LordBranniganThe Gotta be worth 5.

Good argument

Bam only missed two games. You're making it seem as if he missed the entire series.

@MR12AMAZING if Lebron would have missed 2 games resulting in a loss for LA would you say the same thing. Most playoff teams reduce their roster to the strongest 8 or 9 he was the leading assist guy and rebounder. That series was all jimmy Butler putting up 40 pieces and defending the best player on the other side of the ball. Lakers won in six. Just my opinion, but that one is a (*)

Let's be honest here, Miami never looked like they were winning that series. That is the weakest argument for putting an asterisk on a win. Underdogs that won because of injuries of the opponents have more of an asterisk on their wins that favourites that did what they were supposed to do.

Because they to dum* to understand basketball. They are unhappy people that like to whine .

Yep 😂😂😂

2022 was actually a fluke and I can't be convinced otherwise

Don’t like lebron huh?

Facts 😂

But the raptors cooked the warriors earlier in the year plus matched up perfectly I get kd and klay are great but so were the raptors that year

You really don't understand, do you? Instead of discrediting the Lakers for winning the 2020 championship in the bubble, you must point that mistakes to Adam Silver and his executives who were responsible for making the decision to continue the 2020 NBA season at the bubble. Blame that to them and blame it on COVID-19 because this virus made it worst for everyone. It stopped by how our world normally works. Before COVID-19 happens, the Lakers was already the number 1 seed in the NBA. They got all the home court advantage. And it would benefit to them because of the home court advantage they have. They still can win it even without COVID because they were the better team out of the qualified playoff teams in the NBA at that time. Back to the bubble thing, it wasn't Lakers fault if they win it. All the 16th qualified playoff teams at that time both in the West and the East, only followed the rules of Adam Silver and his executives to continue that season. Because if that's the case that the 2020 Lakers championship had an asterisk, then Adam Silver should mindful and logical enough to continue that season not in the bubble but how NBA games normally played before the COVID. He must continue it in the NBA home and away games despite the presence of COVID-19 in the area of each NBA arena so that arrogant, bullshit, prideful, and stubborn fans will not put any asterisk about it. My question now for you, if the Miami Heat won that series in the 2020 NBA championship bubble, would you still have the same complaints or the same asterisk ✳️ as what the Lakers received it since winning that championship 🏆? What if the Clippers win it all, would you still have the same negative comment or negative evaluation as to how they won it? Or the Lakers just won it at that time because it was Lebron winning it, you know why? Because whenever Bron won anything or loss in a game, whatever the circumstances people still hate him. Whatever he do, whether it be good or bad, people still hate him. If Kawhi, Jimmy Butler or the other playoff team won it in the bubble, they will never hate them.

@@drakesmith4857 The Raptors needed a miracle lucky bounce just to survive the 76ers. They would have lost and maybe been swept by a healthy Warriors who nearly took it to 7 without KD and Klay

Thats a pretty terrible example of "luck". Chicago played awful in game 1 and still lost by 2. The Bulls demolished them in game 2 and 3. Worthy and Scott were in their mid 30s, its not a surprise they couldn't last 4 rounds of playoffs. Jordan had nearly a 30 gamescore in that series, which is a completely absurd number in a finals. Not only was that not even close to luck, that Bulls team has an argument as the best team ever.

And you’re wrong they literally turned 30 that year. It’s a pretty spot on example seeing the bulls had home court advantage. It’d be like losing pippen…

@@nokstradomus82 Oh you don't understand what you are talking about, I see. Yes, being 30 means you are in your 30s. Injuries are not luck, that is what losers say. And you dont seem to understand what a 30 gamescore means, Magic had a gamescore of 20 in that series and played amazing. Jordan was a man on a mission. You are one of the idiots JJ is talking too, its always crazy when some random has the balls to argue with actual professionals in the specifics of their field. You do not know what you are talking about, try listening to the people that do. That is what makes everyone you know more intelligent than you.

@@nokstradomus82 That Lakers team didn't have a player that was anywhere close to Pippen, at any point in their career. They were much younger, much more athletic and had the best and 3rd best players in the series. You might have picked one of the worst possible examples. The only finals that one could argue had any amount of "luck" involved was the 2017 finals. But that doesn't take into account the real-world situation of that Warriors team going to 4 consecutive finals and what that does too someone's body. Those Lakers teams had been playing in 100+ games every year for a decade, only a moron would think them getting hurt was "unlucky". That is just how the real world works, even success comes at a price.

@garrettclayton4741 only a moron would say 2 players are in their mid 30’s while they actually were both born in 61 and turned 30 that year. Therefor your credibility is shot not to mention you said the lakers had no one close to pippen? Are you crazy magic bird and Jordan were in the goat conversation at the time pippen was not. Please do your research instead of focus on your feelings.

Don’t disrespect that 2014 San Antonio spurs team! They were a damn machine and played basketball at its peak form

@@ericespinoza7789 okay you’re right. BUT THAT’S IT

It was Caron Butler not Shawn Marrion who injured his knees.

It's the best Finals run ever. The Mavs took out killers to get that trophy.

Nuggets last year?

Well championships do outweigh almost anything

Very true, especially since he was coming off what might have been a season ending injury during the ECF vs the Hawks.

@@CCEkekedon’t forget trae young was cooking them that series and probably would’ve beat the bucks if he didn’t get hurt with his foot 🤷🏽 giannis would’ve lost to the nets and the hawks if both teams key players didn’t get hurt.

You can say the same about Dirk and 2011

Trae young was injured, so was Giannis. I will take Giannis over Trae young. The Brooklyn Nets won game 5 without Kyrie, so no excuses. The bucks smacked the next year nets in game 6 , and beat the next year nets in overtime on their floor in game 7.

Not true

It does not matter. What matters is who lifts the trophy in the end. No matter what team or what league.

That toronto team was deep

@@cheffman7127what’s not true?

Just like 2015 when the warriors took 6 games to beat the cavs without irvin and love right?????

Klay got injured in the 2nd quarter of game 6. He was missing for just over a half of basketball. Raptors beat gsw in the regular season without Kawhi and a full gsw squad including KD. From 2013 to 2022 gsw had best winning percentage and most wins, Toronto is 2nd in the same span. Its was not a fluke the raptors won.

​@@melian9999Klay also missed game 3 if I remember correctly. Also Looney got injured. Luck played a major factor in Toronto winning

​@@melian9999 GO RAPTORS!

@SickoRed72 ahh poor gsw fan had a 73 win team add one of the greatest scorers ever and still can't get over losing to Toronto. Your roght Klay missed game 3. They still had Iggy ( finals mvp!!??) Shaun livingston, boogie cousins, bogut, oh and the greatest shooter ever. That Raptors team was really really good, then added Kawhi ( they won more games the next season, Nurse won coty, without kawhi. Covid was the only reason the Lakers won). It might of went 7 if KD was there, oh and the Raptors didnt have OG....gsw lucky it went six games imo

@SickoRed72 and way to go missing the whole point of JJ's video

I mean those 2 finals all have extenuating circumstances, maybe you believe the cavs were better but those teams never faced each other at full strength. I personally don't understand basketball enough to know which team would win

idiotic. kawhi beat giannis embiid jimmy butler and steph curry. suck on it

You can say the 09 celtics losing garnett the 05 heat losing wade the 05 sonics and suns losing players the 15 cavs vs the warriors and 2018 rockets losing cp3 and heck 2017 spurs losing parker and kawhi as big injuries too

yup, losing your number 1 and 3 option was just difficult to overcome.. you run atleast 50% of your plays through Durant and Klay that year, losing them means that now toronto only needs to guard curry and its a wrap..

Yall just lucky the NBA canceled the CP3 trade to team up with Kobe Bryant. At least 2 more titles for Kobe

Warriors first chip was just as lucky if not luckier

The rockets went 7- 44 from 3. It wasn't luck imo it was good defence, an all time bad shooting night and poor coaching for not changing things

@@patrickhanlon2325 yeah that game 7 shooting was horrible, but look at how bad they were fouling Harden in particular for those 3 point attempts, that was at least unlucky for the Rockets coz on any other day he may have had 15+ free throws that day

@@thabofinca3377 absolutely luck played its part in that game/series but not enough for the warriors to have an asterisk on that title imo

@@patrickhanlon2325 no championship deserves a title, I agree with JJ 100% on that one but luck definitely does exist, and thats just an example that stuck out for me not necessarily a diss to the Warriors or their championship

Right and even then, no one ever really considers their championship lesser than or as an asterisk in the same way that AD, Bron and the Lakers during the bubble might be able qualify for the same designation. Luck will always be a factor that can hardly be measured within sports but there can be other factors that can skew favor for a team or player which should deservedly be critiqued by fans at large.

Klay played 18/24 Q. That is 4.5 out if 6 gms. Raos were up 3-1 in the series when Klay was injured at the end of 4Q in gm 4. He missed gm and gm back in gm 6 & got hurt when 3Q was almost over. KD was out since gm 1 of WCF there was no excuse when they went on to beat Houston then but suddenly Raps was lucky??? Haters!!

How convenient of you to forget 2015 when the warriors took 6 games to beat cavs without irvin and love.

Seriously bro, warriors 2015. Never would've happened. So dumb

@@rickpersaud7016 You guys make me sick with this. In 2016 first 4 games CAVS HAD THE SAME 2015 TEAM HEALTHY & WAS DOWN 3-1 to GSW

@@ishaanshettigar1554 you just an emotional Cavs fan, I’m from Ohio 2016 Cavs had the SAME ROSTER AS 2015 & WAS DOWN 3-1 BEFORE DRAYMOND GOT SUSPENDED

@@rickpersaud7016 if Cavs had Kyrie & Love in 2015 Warriors would have scored much easier, Kyrie & Love are known for being lesser on defense they are great on offense but Warriors cooked them in the first 4 games with everybody in 2016

That’s a fact

then why didn't everyone else win? the best team in the bubble won. no homecourt, no fans, no distraction. just pure hooping. and they all lost to the lakers. cope

You know nothing about basketball then...

Plus, they lost Kobe that year. That team was really emotional and won it for him. I like to see any other team overcome that. The Clippers couldn't handle it... lol

😂😂 factss

You’ve been watching skip bayless alot

@@Slicktheruler it's true tho 👍🤷

Klay played 5 of 6 games in that series. Yes KD though.

Raptors won the season series and also were dealing with injuries

then luck would be involved in every championship

@@chearoyewun1186ofc but injuries to clear favorites so another team can win us different

@@julianbrittain3678That's on the Warriors. They took the risk in top loading their team and risking injuries. If they were deeper it would not have been such a problem.

I mean idk that spurs team was worse than the Toronto team honestly. and Kawhi could’ve beat them that year if he ain’t get hurt, is Golden state lucky Kawhi got hurt ??

@@KoopaTroopa-mu9fh if you lose you’re best playing you are going to lose the series when you’re taking about an NBA finals…

Honestly was surprised ant wasn’t chosen to combine w shaq but I also don’t know his contract value this season

Man Stop it!! 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️