Only about half of the teams in the NBA have won an NBA championship, which means they haven’t been doing anything right since the franchise began. Of the 17 teams that have won the championship, eight teams have only one ring, while six have four or fewer. The Bulls are the team in the middle of the pack with six NBA championships that all came after the year 1991 when the Bulls had Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player to ever play. The last two teams on the list of champions, the Lakers (16 championships) and the Celtics (17 championships), these two teams must have been doing something right over the years to win more than half of all the championships in the NBA and I’ll explain it to you right now.
#1. The first thing a team should have is defense. It is the same in almost all sports that the defense wins championships and it is no different in basketball. If you look back at recent NBA Championship winners, you can tell that many of them have been defensive teams. The Lakers Kobe Bryant has been on the NBA defensive team 10 times throughout his NBA career and Ron Artest has been on the team for 4 years. With the Spurs and their Championship run, they had Tim Duncan who was there 13 times, Bruce Bowen 8 times and David Robinson 8 times. Even when the Bulls made their run to 6 championships with MJ, the team still had a defensive mindset. Michael Jordan, who had been on the NBA All-Defensive team 9 times, Scottie Pippen was on it 10 times, and they also had Dennis Rodman, who was on it 8 times. So of those teams, all of them had at least 2 players on the roster who were considered elite defensive players. During the regular season you can have a great offense and put up a lot of points to win games and you can win 60 games like the Mavs and Suns did in past seasons, but since neither of them have an average defensive team, they always would. they end up falling in the playoffs when teams up their game.
#two. The second thing you need is 2 All Stars on your team. It has been proven year after year that one guy can never do it alone. For example, Kobe Bryant tried to do it a couple of years and never got past the first round of the playoffs, even though he was the league’s MVP, he didn’t have another All Star to back him up when he had a bad night. Another example is LeBron James with the Cavs. He has won back-to-back MVPs, and yet he has yet to win an NBA championship because he doesn’t have another All-Star to help him. No matter how good a guy is, he can never do it alone. Even the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan, needed Scottie Pippen to win. With the Lakers, Kobe always had Shaq or Gasol, the Spurs had Tim Duncan and David Robinson along with the great defense. The 2008 Celtics might have had the best team ever with 3 All Stars in Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and the best defense in the league. The Bulls have a great opportunity this offseason to get that second All Star on their team to help Derrick Rose. They can choose between about 10 All Stars and the NBA MVP in LeBron James. If the Bulls can somehow get 2 free agents with the $30 million they have available, they could possibly be a guarantee for the NBA Championship in 2011.
#3. Inside shooting is also a must if you want to win an NBA championship. 75% of the teams that have won an NBA championship have had some type of low-post scorer. The list can go on and on with players like Shaq O’Neil, Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Kevin Garnett. Yes, shooting from outside is a great thing and can win games for you every other night, but it’s generally not a consistent way to score. Over the course of your NBA Championship run, you’ll run into obstacles where you can’t seem to buy a bucket as they say. When that time comes, that’s when you need that big man downstairs to back someone up and take over the game with some easy baskets near the rim.
#4. This is the last thing a team needs to win a championship and some people think it might be the most important thing and that is HEART. You have to be able to want to win and believe that you are going to win in order to win. Just because he has the players and the talent doesn’t mean he’ll automatically win it and the other teams will just give up. All team members must be able to play it all every night to win an NBA championship. Little things help you win games, like diving for a loose ball or putting both hands on defense to create a steal. Those kinds of plays bring out the best in your teammates, knowing you’re doing everything you can to win a game.