Today, OutKick is going to defend the NBA against ESPN.
This week, ESPN commentator Vincent Goodwill argued that parity in the league is a problem. In his view, the NBA championship has become a “participation trophy.”
“Dynasty is better for the sport,” Goodwill said. “I like to know that greatness is validated. How do we know that any of the last eight champions are actually validated because they have not done it again? Giannis is itching to get out, Boston is thinking about trading Jaylen Brown, they don’t believe in their one championship. LeBron’s one championship in LA was not enough. So why would it be enough for us?”
For context, eight different franchises have won the past eight NBA titles. The Warriors were the last team to repeat as champions in 2018.
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For decades, championship runs in the NBA were defined by sustained dominance. The Lakers and Celtics combined for eight championships in the 1980s. The Bulls won six titles in the 1990s. The Lakers and Spurs combined for 10 championships from 1999 to 2014. The Heat and Warriors accounted for six of the next eight titles.
Fans and media expected another team to follow that pattern this decade. At different points, the Bucks, Nuggets and Thunder each looked like candidates. Instead, every would-be dynasty has stalled before it could begin.
Which raises the question: Is the NBA weaker without dynasties?
Put simply, it depends on the dynasty.
The NBA was most popular during Michael Jordan’s run in Chicago. It regained some of that interest when LeBron James’ Cavaliers and Steph Curry’s Warriors met in four consecutive Finals from 2015 through 2018. By contrast, the Tim Duncan Spurs won five championships across 15 seasons but were never box office.
An Oklahoma City run built around foul merchant Shai Gilgeous-Alexander probably wouldn’t move the needle outside Oklahoma. A Knicks repeat, meanwhile, would have television executives and league partners celebrating behind closed doors.
The same is true in other sports.
The Chiefs’ run helped fuel record NFL viewership. If the Seahawks and Sam Darnold reach the Super Bowl this season, don’t expect the league office or ESPN to be nearly as enthusiastic.
That said, this is where we’ll defend the current NBA product. Parity is fun. More importantly, it’s rare.
Among the major American sports leagues, the NBA currently offers the most uncertainty. The last 10 Super Bowls have featured only nine franchises. Meanwhile, the Dodgers entered June as overwhelming favorites to win the World Series for the third consecutive year.
It’s difficult to imagine the Dodgers not winning again, given the talent disparity between their roster and the rest of the league. In the NFL, there are a handful of contenders on paper, but they’re largely the same teams that have won Super Bowls over the past decade: the Rams, Seahawks, Eagles, Chiefs and Patriots.
Recent history suggests that at least one NBA Finals team next season will enter the year with odds longer than +2000. That gives fan bases across the league hope, a feeling many didn’t have during previous eras of the NBA.
While teams like the Spurs and Thunder are assembled to contend for years to come, the league’s most recent collective bargaining agreement introduced a second-apron luxury tax that prevents teams from stockpiling talent the way the Heat and Warriors did in the 2010s.
“I believe that parity of opportunity is good for the league,” commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN last year. “When more teams have a genuine chance at winning a championship, the competition on the court is more compelling, and fans in more markets are engaged.
“We didn’t set out with the goal to have a different champion every year, and I’m not against dynasties so long as they are built within a fair system.”
He’s right.
We won’t go full NBA fanboy like much of the media. That said, more teams are legitimate championship contenders today than at any point over the past 30 years. That’s a positive.
It also doesn’t make winning a title a participation trophy. If anything, parity has made winning a championship even harder.
