I know it’s happened and this is probably the least interesting post ever but when I reflect on recent NBA history, it is still shocking to me what happened that year. I never thought it would be remotely possible. It was just a record that could never be touched.
And yet it really happened. I don’t think it gets enough credit because of the “it don’t mean a thing without the ring” piece but as time passes, I gotta say it’s just a standalone incredible achievement.
The fact that the last 30 games of the season they were the target for every team, no one wanted to see them do it, and they still did it. It’s incredibly impressive.
What’s crazy is all of the best seasons across all 4 major North American sports haven’t resulted in a Title. You have the 2015-16 Warriors above, the 2007 [undefeated] Patriots, the 2022-23 Bruins, and the 1906 Cubs/2001 Mariners.
I call it the Curse of the Record-setting Record.
Bruins was by far the biggest choke job.
What happened?
Last NHL season, the Boston Bruins won 65 games(all time record) and lost in the first round to the Florida Panthers, who won only 42 games.
Set the NHL record for most points in a season
Set the NHL record for most wins in a season
Take a 3-1 lead in the first round
Lose three straight, two of them at home, against a team that had 23 less wins and 43 less points than them, to end the season with three straight losses and a first round exit.
The NFL has multiple 18-1 teams that won the title. The Patriots are the only 18-1 team that didn’t. NFL also has the 17-0 dolphins,and other undefeated teams from before the sb era
If it’s best regular season it’s still that Pats team. You have to forget that they lost/completely ignore the postseason to really consider this properly but they had the best regular season ever by an NFL team. And I’m a fucking Jets fan.
There are multiple teams that had undefeated regular seasons in NFL history though, including the aforementioned Miami Dolphins. Even if you ignore the regular season there are other undefeated regular seasons, not just the patriots.
Teams that only lost a single time to win the chip is even larger, including the 18-1 85 bears and the 84 49ers
The 07 patriots sputtered so much at the end of their season it was very similar to the warriors. They were insane in the first 8 games and getting lucky a lot in the last 8 and playoffs. Had they won the super bowl I’d be ok calling them the best team ever because of 19-0. With the warriors though even if they had won the finals over the cavs they wouldn’t have been better than the 72-10 Bulls who lost way fewer games than the warriors overall
I feel like you burn yourself out so much trying to get every last win that by the playoffs everyone is just exhausted.
Maybe in the NBA, but in the Bruins and the Patriots case it was simply a chokejob. In the NBA, the playoffs are really long and going all out for a meaningless record like the Warriors did can cost you at the end, in the NFL, the playoffs are kinda short and you also get to rest an extra week as the No. 1 seed, so it isn’t that big a deal.
It wasn’t meaningless, it still made history. Anything that has to do with the regular season isn’t as pointless as you make it out to be, that mindset is why some players feel like it’s pointless