Which teams have been the best NBA champions since the "Last Dance" Chicago Bulls?
June marks a quarter century since Michael Jordan's iconic game winner gave the Bulls their sixth championship in eight years before Jordan (temporarily) retired and Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Luc Longley, Ron Harper and Steve Kerr scattered throughout the rest of the NBA.
Although no team has matched Chicago's six title runs over that much longer span, the past 25 years have given us a handful of memorable runs. The Spurs won five times across a decade and a half with Tim Duncan. Jackson's Lakers won three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002. LeBron James won four titles with three teams. The Warriors reached six Finals and won four times under Kerr, now on the sideline for Golden State.
Using the formula I created to weigh regular-season performance (as measured by point differential) and playoff dominance (point differential, adjusted for opposition faced during the run) in my rankings of the greatest NBA teams of all time a few years ago, let's run through the past 24 champions -- soon to be joined by the Denver Nuggets or Miami Heat as a 25th -- since Jordan and the Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz in 1998.
