Modern Sports Dynasties

With both the Warriors and Lightning back in the Finals, there's been a lot of talk about dynasties this month.  Golden State's status as a modern-day dynasty was already established.  Another title just added to that legacy.  Tampa Bay, meanwhile, could become the first team in nearly 40 years to win three straight Stanley Cup titles, which would absolutely put the Lightning into "dynasty" territory if they aren't already.

Yesterday I was listening to ESPN Radio and whoever was hosting that particular show suggested the Warriors are the third-greatest NBA dynasty of all-time, which is quite a stretch (he was presumably talking about the Bill Russell Celtics and Jordan Bulls, but what about the Showtime Lakers and Shaq/Kobe Lakers?).  While I would put them above Shaq and Kobe, there's no way the Warriors rank above Showtime.  I don't see any HBO series being made about them, do you?

That got me thinking about another question, though.  What are the greatest sports dynasties of the last 50-ish years?  A number of teams have won multiple championships, and some gave gone back-to-back, but which ones are truly era-defining dynasties?  The NHL expanded from 6 to 12 in 1967-68, MLB expanded from 12 to 16 in 1969 and the AFL-NFL merger was in 1970, so that's what I'm defining as 50-ish years.  And there are 13 teams that meet that criteria...

13. Oakland A's (1972-74): It was a full decade before I was born, but the A's of the early 70s must've been an extremely fun team to watch!  They're the only team other than the Yankees ever to win three straight World Series, and they did it with a cast of characters that featured a young Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue among others.  Then free agency came to baseball and the A's were broken up (sound familiar?).

12. Dallas Cowboys (1992-95): Dallas had some epic playoff battles with the 49ers in the early 90s and ended up winning three Super Bowls in four years, the first team ever to do that.  Six players from those teams (Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Larry Allen, Deion Sanders, Charles Haley) now have busts in Canton, as does Jimmy Johnson, the coach of the first two.  What's probably disappointing to Cowboys fans is the knowledge that it could've been so much more.

11. Houston Comets (1997-2000): As soon as the WNBA was founded, the league immediately had its first dynasty.  Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson and Co., won each of the first four WNBA championships.  The Comets weren't just the best team in the WNBA during those early years, they were the DOMINANT team!  Unfortunately, the franchise folded in 2008.  Their four championships are still tied for the most in WNBA history, though.

10. Pittsburgh Steelers (1974-79): Led by perhaps the greatest defense in NFL history, Pittsburgh won four Super Bowls in six years.  Last year, Donnie Shell became the 10th member of those Steelers teams inducted into the Hall of Fame, not including Head Coach Chuck Noll and owners Art and Dan Rooney (a number that should be 12 because it's a joke that L.C. Greenwood isn't a Hall of Famer!).  The NFL has changed a lot since then, and watching old NFL Films video of the Steel Curtain shows just how brutal the game was in the 70s!

9. Golden State Warriors (2015-22): Today's Stephen Curry-led Golden State Warriors come in at No. 9 for a few reasons.  First, the run started with five straight trips to the Finals (the first four of which were against LeBron's Cavs...an unofficial NBA rule for a few years!).  Second, it could easily be eight straight had they not had to deal with a slew of injuries (and everything else) over the past two seasons.  Third, the way the NBA salary cap requires the constant roster reconstruction.  Fourth, and perhaps most significantly, there's no indication this is the end of it.  They ain't stopping at four!

8. Montreal Canadiens (1976-79): There are three NHL teams on this list who dominated the league back-to-back-to-back.  I couldn't really separate them, so I'm putting them all in a row here, too (and leaving them in chronological order), starting with the Montreal Canadiens and their Stanley Cup four-peat from 1976-79.  The 1976-77 Canadiens are widely considered the greatest NHL team ever, going 60-8-12 and outscoring their opponents by more than 200 goals.  They lost one home game all season and never two in a row!  It ended with a four-game sweep of the Bruins for the Cup.  They went 16-3 in the Finals over the four series.

7. New York Islanders (1980-84): After the Canadiens, it was the Islanders who took over as the NHL's dominant team.  As we've kept seeing on graphics during the Lightning's current run, the Islanders still hold the record with 19 consecutive playoff series wins, four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83, followed by a run to the 1984 Final, where they lost to the next team on our list.

6. Edmonton Oilers (1984-90): Edmonton lost to the Islanders in 1983 before turning the tables in the 1984 Final and starting a remarkable run of its own.  Gretzky, Messier and Co., won the Cup four times in the next five seasons.  Then, after Gretzky left, Messier led the Oilers to another title in 1990.  That's five Cups in seven years, with only a pair of Montreal vs. Calgary series in 1986 and '89 interrputing the run.

5. Los Angeles Lakers (1980-91): The Lakers three-peated from 2000-02 and went to three straight Finals from 2008-10, but the Shaq/Kobe Era pales in comparison to Magic, Kareem and Showtime.  Magic Johnson's rookie year was 1979-80.  They won the championship that season.  They went on to win four more in the 80s and lost in the Finals four other times in that span.  Nine NBA Finals appearances in an exceptional 12-year period!

4. San Francisco 49ers (1981-89): In the 70s, the Steelers rode their defense to four Super Bowl titles in six years.  In the 80s, the 49ers used their offense to win four in nine.  They won in 81, then had that historic 18-1 season in 84.  Then Jerry Rice showed up and they won back-to-back titles in 88 and 89.  No team has ever won three straight Super Bowls, but they came close.  They were the best team in the league in 1990, but lost to the Giants in the NFC Championship Game.

3. New York Yankees (1996-2000): Believe it or not, no team has even won back-to-back World Series since the Yankees' three-peat from 1998-2000.  And it looked like it would be four if not for that fateful bottom of the ninth in Game 7 in 2001.  Another AL pennant in 2003 was their sixth in eight years.  The Yankees have won a grand total of one pennant (and World Series) in the two decades since.

2. Chicago Bulls (1991-98): While some might think my ranking for the Jordan Bulls may be a little high, consider this: they won six championships in eight years, and two years they didn't, he didn't play!  Had Jordan not retired after the third championship, it easily could've been eight in a row!  Especially when you consider that his first full season back, 1995-96, they went 72-10 to start the second three-peat!

1. New England Patriots (2001-18): Based on both longevity and sheer domination, there's no dynasty like the 20-year reign of the Bradicheck Patriots.  Six Super Bowl titles, including three in four years from 2001-04 and three in five from 2014-18, which easily could've been nine if not for three memorable losses.  Beyond that, though, they won the AFC East and were in the AFC Championship Game EVERY! FREAKIN'! YEAR!  It's two decades of unmatched brilliance (in a salary cap era) that we'll likely never see again.