What You Need to Win an NBA Championship

By Jim Sweet

  Only about half of the teams in the NBA have actually won an NBA Championship which means they haven't been doing something right on management's end since the franchise started. Out of the 17 teams that have actually won the championship, eight teams only have one ring while six have four or less. The Bulls are the team in the middle of the pack with six NBA Championships in which all of them came after the year 1991 when the Bulls had Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. The last two teams on the list of champions in the Lakers (16 championships) and the Celtics (17 championships) these two teams must have been doing something right over the years in order to win more than half of all the NBA Championships ever and I'm going to explain it to you right now.

#1. The very 1st thing that a team needs to have is defense. It goes the same in pretty much every sport out there that defense wins championships and it's no different in basketball. If you look back to recent NBA Championship winners you can tell they 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 has been there 13 times, Bruce Bowen 8 times, and David Robinson 8 times. Even when the Bulls made their run with 6 Championships with MJ the team was still defensive minded. Michael Jordan who had been on the NBA's defensive team 9 times, Scottie Pippen's been on it 10 times, and they also had Dennis Rodman who was on it 8 times. So out of those teams they all had at least 2 players on the roster who were considered to be elite defensive players. During the regular season you can have a great offensive and put up a ton of points in order to win games and you might win 60 games like the Mavs and Suns did in past seasons but since neither of them have an average defensive team they would always end up falling in the playoffs when teams take their game up a notch.


#2. The 2nd thing that you need is 2 All Stars on your team. It has been proven year after year that one guy can never do it on his own. For example Kobe Bryant tried to do it a couple years and could never get past the 1st round of the playoffs even though he was the MVP of the league 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 still hasn't won an NBA Championship because he doesn't have another All Star to help him. It doesn't matter how good one guy is he can never do it alone. Even the greatest player ever Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen in order 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 Celtics of 2008 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 huge chance this off season to get that 2nd All Star in their team to help Derrick Rose out. They have their choice from about 10 All Stars and the MVP of the NBA in LeBron James. If the Bulls can somehow get 2 free agents with the 30 million dollars that they have available to them they might possibly be a lock to make it to the NBA Championship in 2011.

#3. Inside shooting is also a necessity 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 outside shooting is a great thing and can win games for you every other night but it is not usually a consistent way to score. During the course of your NBA Championship run you are going to come across road blocks where you can't seem to buy a bucket as they say. When that time comes that is when you need that big man down low to back somebody up and take over the game with some easy baskets close to the rim.

#4. This is the last thing that a team needs in order to win a Championship and some people think it might be the most important and that is HEART. You have to be able to actually want to win and believe you are going to win in order to actually win. Just because you have the players and the talent doesn't mean you will win it automatically and the other teams are just going to give up. Every member of the team needs to be able to lay it all on the line every night in order to win an NBA Championship. Little things help you win games for example diving for a loose ball or putting both of your hands up on defense in order to create a steal. Those types of plays bring the best out of your teammates, knowing that you are trying your best to win a game.

I have been a Chicago Bulls fan since I can remember and I would like to see the Bulls go on another dominating run like they did in the 90's. That is why I have wrote a few articles on the Bulls

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