NBA Finals Throughout History
Sunday, June 13th, 2010Click the graphic above to launch the visualization. Once launched, roll your mouse over your team to see which years they made it to the NBA Finals. (Blue bars = wins, red bars = losses). You can also roll over any year to see which teams won and lost.
We were thinking about what team is the best in NBA history. Roll your mouse over all of the teams, it becomes clear the Lakers and Celtics are tops.
The Lakers have made if to the NBA Finals 31 times in with 16 wins and 15 losses. The Celtics have made the NBA Finals 21 times with 17 wins and 4 losses. Of the teams who have been to the Finals more than once, only the Bulls and Spurs have a better winning percentages than the Celtics. The Bulls are .1000 in six visits during the Jordan years and the Spurs are .1000 in four visits between 1999 and 2007.
Thirty-one NBA Finals visits in unbelievable. As is going 17-4. No other franchises come close to these stats. The FanSnap office is split down the middles as to which team is tops. What do you think?
Special thanks to Robby MacDonnell (robbymacdonell.com) for crafting a very cool visualization.