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As a game, basketball has constantly evolved over the years to a point now when one player is hoisting more 3-pointers today than entire teams attempted over 48 minutes in the early 1980s.
Thus, establishing a pecking order of the top 10 basketball teams ever assembled is a daunting task, but I gave it a shot anyway. Note that for the purposes of this article, we're considering not just teams in the NBA.
The Golden State Warriors have proved with their back-to-back titles that they are one of the greatest basketball teams of all time. Adding DeMarcus Cousins to the mix this past summer makes them even more prohibitive favourites, if that were possible, then they were in '16-17 or last season. There's a pretty good chance that they land somewhere on this list following the playoffs this season. Read on to find which of their squads makes this list:
#10 Los Angeles Lakers, 2000-01
While their regular season record may suggest otherwise, the 2000-01 Lakers were the most dominant postseason team I've ever had the chance to go through game footage of. The combination of the most dominant player on the planet with the most complete guard in the game made for the best 1-2 punch in NBA history.
The Lakers had a deep rotation comprising the likes of Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, Rick Fox, Ron Harper and Horace Grant: tough-as-nails veterans who picked up the slack when Kobe and Shaq sat.
In my opinion as a Kobe stan, he played the best two-way basketball of his career rocking the #8 and the afro. His performances in the Conference Semifinals against the Spurs were legendary, as were Shaq's Finals numbers against Dikembe Mutombo, as the Lakers embarked on a 15-1 run in the playoffs in going back-to-back.
#9 Boston Celtics 1964-65
Easily the greatest dynasty of all-time, Bill Russell's Boston Celtics won 11 championships in 13 years, including eight straight from 1959 to 1966. Six of their eleven titles came at the expense of the Lakers, in addition to one Finals win for their arch-rivals when they were still based in a town with lakes.
Their most dominant season during their 8 championship run was probably 1964-65 when they boasted a 62-18 record during the regular season before beating the Lakers 4-1 in the Finals. This was at the late-prime stage of Bill Russell's career, and he was beginning to let go of his role as a tertiary scorer to focus all of his energy on his GOAT-calibre defence.
The likes of Bob Cousy, Frank Ramsey and Tommy Heinsohn were the reason the Celtics were a good offensive team, but without Russell, they wouldn't have had a single championship in those years.
#8 Los Angeles Lakers 1986-87
This was the season when the fabled Showtime Lakers were at their absolute peak. Kareem 'Captain' Abdul-Jabbar was still playing at an All-NBA level, Magic Johnson was in MVP form and Big Game James Worthy had come into his own as one of the most prolific wing scorers in the league, flying in and dunking on people every once in a while.
In addition to the Big 3, the Lakers also had Byron Scott, a veritable All-Star on offence, defensive specialist and Defensive Player of the Year 1986 Michael Cooper, AC Green and Kurt Rambis on their depth chart. Through the course of the regular season, they held a 65-17 record, and they proceeded to defeat reigning champions and bitter arch-rivals Boston Celtics 4-2 in the NBA Finals after blitzing through the Western Conference playoff bracket.
#7 Philadelphia 76ers 1982-83
The Sixers with Dr J were perennial contenders but contrived to fall short of winning it all in 3 straight seasons during the early 80s. While Erving was the dominant swingman of his generation, the Sixers did not have a big man capable of holding his own against the Lakers and the Celtics, who both had all-time great centres on their rosters in Kareem and Robert Parish.
This changed when they signed the best rebounder in the game at the time in Moses Malone, who was at the peak of his career with the Houston Rockets in seasons preceding the 1982-83 season.
The 82-83 Sixers had a swag about them that few squads in league history have had, encapsulated by Moses' "fo fo fo" declaration when asked about how he thought the playoffs would go in 1983. They only ended up playing one game more, going on a 12-1 run which was the most dominant playoff run in league history at the time.
#6 Boston Celtics 1985-86
Rebounding from a 1985 Finals' loss to the Lakers, the Celtics with the addition of a former MVP in Bill Walton marched to 65 wins in the 1985-86 regular season. Walton complemented the likes of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson perfectly in his bench role, winning the Sixth Man of the Year honour in his final healthy NBA season and playing a pivotal role in the Finals.
After finishing the regular season as the top team in the Association with a 67-15 record, the Celtics breezed through their playoff bracket with an 11-1 record in the Eastern Conference playoffs, before defeating Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets in six games for the 1986 title. This team is also the proud owner of a 40-1 (.976) home record, the best home win percentage of all time - they share the record with the 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs.
#5 Chicago Bulls 1995-96, 96-97
Every other team on this list is probably a more well-rounded roster than these Bulls teams, but having the greatest basketball player ever on your side tends to take you to historic levels as a team - which is exactly what happened in Jordan's first full season back in the league.
Motivated by their humbling loss to the Magic in the playoffs in 1995, Michael Jordan and the Bulls dominated the league to such an extent for these two seasons that they still hold the 2-season record for win percentage, tallying a 141-23 record through the aforementioned time period.
While Jordan was past his physical prime at this point, he relented in giving up some of his responsibilities to focus even more on being the team's main scoring engine. Adding the most dominant rebounder in the history of the game allowed him to refocus all of his energy on playing defence and dropping 30 points on his opponents every night.
Through the 1995-96 season, he averaged nearly 15 mid-range jumpers a game and converted them at historically elite percentages to the point where it was quite clear that he was the greatest scorer of all time.
The Bulls rampaged through the 1996 playoffs with a 16-3 record before defending their title 2 more seasons in a row.
#4 Golden State Warriors 2016-17
The greatest Finals comeback of all time was, unfortunately, also the root cause for the imbalance in the league today. LeBron James and the Cavaliers' Finals win caused the rather cheesily named 'Hamptons 5' to band together in the Bay Area, and the Warriors went on a murderous run through the year, finishing the regular season with a 67-15 record that they attained by basically sleepwalking through until April.
Come playoff time, the Splash Brothers turned it up in Kevin Durant's absence to ease past the Blazers with a sweep. Durant's comeback allowed the Warriors to turn their play up to a notch I've never seen a team attain in the postseason, and an injury to Kawhi Leonard was basically the death knell for the Spurs in the Conference Finals.
The Finals were little different, as LeBron's triple-double efforts and Kyrie's 29.4 points per game average brought all but 1 win for the Cavs in a game when they set the playoff record for 3-pointers made with 24.
Adding a prime Kevin Durant to the mix has messed up the competitive balance of the league for a number of years.
#3 Redeem Team 2008
Following debacles at 3 successive major international tournaments despite fielding the most talented teams in said tournaments, Team USA actively reached out to Kobe Bryant in order to recruit him for his first bow for the national team. Bryant duly obliged, and the influence of the world's greatest basketball player at the time was felt right off the bat as Team USA shrugged off the funk accumulated over the noughties.
A roster comprising of, in addition to Kobe, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh all in their respective primes was a sight to behold as they rampaged through the group stages. Encounters with Argentina and Spain were the closest games of the tournament, but the team's staggering wing depth ensured that the gold medal was all but a certainty.
#2 Redeem Team 2012
Having reclaimed USA's rightful place at the top of the basketball pyramid worldwide, the USA Basketball programme was able to field another all-time great team once again in the London Olympics, 2012 with nearly every All-NBA/All Star American volunteering to don the USA jersey.
A crack team comprising of Vino Kobe, Prime Miami Heat LeBron, Point God Chris Paul and Olympic Melo as the tournament veterans and supported by the likes of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love, Andre Iguodala, Deron Williams and #1 overall pick Anthony Davis proceeded to steamroll all opposition in their way.
The 2012 Redeem Team set a record for highest points scored by a single team in a game against Nigeria that finished 156-73, as Carmelo Anthony dropped an outrageous 35 point haul in a mere 7-minute spell. Team USA's only real challenge was in the final against Spain, whom they beat in a shootout by 107-100 to retain the gold medal from Beijing.
#1 Dream Team 1992
One look at the picture above is enough to explain why this team is placed at the top of this pile. Between themselves, this team has 15 MVP trophies, 11 Finals MVP trophies, 2 DPOY trophies, the two career leaders in assists per game, the #2 and #4 all-time scorers in NBA history and innumerable All-NBA, All-Defensive team and All-Star selections combined.
The formation of the team occurred after Team USA's college athletes were no longer able to outmatch professionals from other countries in the 1988 Olympics. USA Basketball asked the NBA to supply the roster for the first time ever, and the rest is history.
The team's average margin of victory through 6 games was a staggering 43.8 points per game. Their lowest points tally in any game was 105, as they averaged 117.3 points through the course of the tournament.
We may never see such a collection of First Ballot Hall of Fame talent ever again, in any sport. It's for a reason that they're literally called the 'Dream Team' - the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in a team sport.
