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While some players have arguably carried their team to an NBA Championship on their own, most titles are won through a collective effort and by an experienced roster. Having players who have been through the trials and tribulations of the league's playoffs is essential in helping the team's younger stars, and remains one of the most important aspects in building a squad to compete for a title.
Going into the 2021-22 season, a lot has been made about the LA Lakers' signings this summer, especially the age of the roster. After their latest addition of Rajon Rondo, the Lakers will be one of the oldest team to compete in the history of the NBA, with an average age currently close to 32. Should they win the NBA Championship this year, something many are tipping them to do, they will surely be one of the oldest to do so.
In this article, we will count down the five oldest title winners using the weighted age method. That takes into consideration the minutes each player plays, rather than just taking the age of every individual, as not everyone features much in each game. Even if a team has ten players over 30, half of them might average less than ten minutes per night. On that note, here's a look at who made the cut.the five oldest teams in the NBA:
#5 San Antonio Spurs (2006-07)
Led by Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, the San Antonio Spurs won their third NBA title in five years in the 2006-07 campaign. The average weighted age of the team was 30.72 years, but Parker and Ginobili were both younger than the average age when the season began.
Many NBA players start to come into their prime as they approach their late 20s,, which the Spurs benefitted from massively that year. Tony Parker, in particular, was clinical, connecting with 57% of both field-goal and three-point efforts during their Finals sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He won the Finals MVP award that year, averaging 24.5 points per game.
The team's overall age was brought up by the likes of Bruce Bowen, Brent Barry and Michael Finley, who all played more than 74 games during the campaign and were all over 33 years old. Center Jackie Butler was the youngest on the roster, though he only played in 11 fixtures.
#4 Chicago Bulls (1996-97)
The 1996-97 Chicago Bulls team had a weighted age of 30.75 years, and had the oldest player to win an NBA championship, Robert Parish, who was 43 at the time. Seven of the side's players were over the age of 30, including starters Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper and Sixth Man Steve Kerr.
After becoming the first side to team 70 games in a season the previous year, the Bulls came close to repeating their effort by winning 69 this time around. They then breezed past the Bullets 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs before seeing off both the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat, losing just once to each team.
In the NBA Finals, they came up against a Utah Jazz side containing league MVP Karl Malone and future Hall-of-Fame guard John Stockton.
Michael Jordan, 34 at the beginning of the NBA playoffs, was irked by Malone winning the MVP award, and made it his goal to prove to the league why he should have won his fifth title.
He was unstoppable in the Finals against the Jazz, scoring 38 points in game five on 48% shooting from the field, despite having food poisoning the night before. By the end of the six games, Jordan had averaged 32 point,s and carried the Bulls to their fifth championship ring in seven seasons.
#3 Boston Celtics (1968-69)
The late 1950s and 1960s were a period of utter dominance by the Boston Celtics, who won 11 titles in 13 seasons. Their final championship campaign of this run came in the 1968-69 season, where they won a grueling Finals series against the LA Lakers 4-3.
Despite winning the NBA title the previous campaign, the Celtics finished fourth in the Eastern Division, winning 48 of their 82 games. Future Hall of Fame inductees Bill Russell and Sam Jones were both over the age of 34 when the season began. Their fellow legends and stars of the team, Bailey Howell and John Havlicek, were over 28. The team had an average weighted age of 30.79 years.
Both Havlicek and Jones would score over 20 points per game in the playoffs, while Russell averaged an immense 20 rebounds along with ten points for good measure.
#2 Dallas Mavericks (2010-11)
For the second-oldest NBA champions, we have to go back only a few years to the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks side led by Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki.
They were both over the age of 33 when they lifted the Larry O'Brien trophy. Kidd was the elder statesman of the team, aged 37 when the season began. Shawn Marion and Jason Terry were both also older than 32. The team had a weighted age of 31.6 years.
The Mavs had been among the title favorites for some time before the 2010-11 season, reaching the playoffs each campaign since the turn of the century. They were still feeling the pain of their NBA Finals loss in 2006.
But they were able to avenge their defeat against the Miami Heat by beating their Eastern Conference opponents 4-2, with Nowitzki winning the Finals MVP award, averaging 26 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
#1 Chicago Bulls (1997-98)
The 1997-98 season would be the final ride for the Chicago Bulls' dynasty. After sealing another three-peat, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman would all move on, as too would Steve Kerr and Luc Longley.
By the time the postseason came around, eleven of the Bulls' roster were over the age of 30, with the weighted age of the side just over 32 years. However, the team were carried by their star trio, who all had immense durability, having continuously made deep runs in the playoffs throughout the 90s.
Dennis Rodman was the team's oldest player at 37, though he played 80 games during the campaign and every postseason matchup. He registered a defensive rating of 100 in the playoffs and grabbed 11.8 rebounds per game.
Michael Jordan, aged 35 by the end of the season, became the league's oldest scoring champion after averaging 28.7 points per game. Although he didn't quite have the athletic prowess he once had, Jordan still put up a staggering 32.4 points each night in the playoffs.
His time with the Bulls culminated in a fitting 45-point domination against the Utah Jazz in game six of the NBA Finals in which he sealed his sixth championship with a 17-foot game-winner.
