The 1970-71 Bruins were better then the 71-72 team. Broke every record in history, dominated and then ran into that SOB Ken Dryden and the Bleeping Habs. Some of the best teams don't always win it all. This is the ring generation where you're the best only if you win it all. BLEEP HAPPENS!!! Like Ken Dryden. Next to the 2018 Sox, I think the 1978 Red Sox were the best and most talented Sox team in my lifetime. But injuries and Don Zimmer's managing at the end lost it in the reg. season. I'm 64, a Baby Boomer and remember the good and the bad. Bill Russell and Red both have said the 67 Celtics that had just won 8 in a row were one of the best and complete teams. Veterans and youth and great trades getting Bailey Howell and Wayne Embry. They just lost to the 67 Sixers who were better and were voted the best team on the 35th anniversary poll. The Celts had a great team that just lost to a greater team. Stuff happens. Off the city Yogi Berra said the 1954 Yankees was the best team he played on even though they had just won 5 in a row. Yogi said better then the 61 team. The 54 Yanks won 103 games and had fantastic pitching and hitting. They just finished 2nd to an Indians team that won 111 games and were superb. Don't get me wrong a lot of these teams on the list are some of the best. Oh I would put the 63-64 Celtics over the 65 Celts. According to Russ that was their best and most complete team especially defensively. I do agree the 07 Pats weren't as good at the second half of the year like the 03 or 04 Pats. But what a first half to 2/3 of the season. One of the best teams I've ever seen. And the 72 Bruins were great, just not quite as good as the 71 team, IMO. Sorry some times I get on a roll and can't stop.
Come on we loved it when the Sampson beat the Lakers on that shot. I was in a bar watching it. Cheered, laughed and yelled Bleep You Lakers!!!!!!!!
Agree on the first one. They were incredible and dominant till they ran into Dryden and the Stinking Habs. Rumor has it after they didn't play well in game 1, the 3-1 victory they were pissed and went out and got a load on and were hungover in game 2. I think Turk said that. And blew a 5-1 lead. Oh the pain, the pain, the pain.
We were confident but not quite like you said. Maxwell was a darn good and popular Celtic they traded, and we weren't sure how healthy Walton would be. Luckily he was and they were great!!!
Remember the 2004 Sox were not that good or great a team until August. Then they were a juggernaut. The 03 and 07 teams were better through July.
Yes Jack agree on 73 Celts. If Hondo doesn't separate his shoulder in game 3 against the Knicks, that's 18 titles they have. And 71 Bruins were the best Bruins team in my lifetime. That Celts team had Cowens, Hondo, Silas, Jo-Jo, Chaney. Off the bench Nelson, Westphal, Art Williams, Kuberski and Hank Finkel.
I know I’m in the minority here but I feel those 60’s Celtics teams along with the 50’s Yankees are two of the most overrated dynasties. That Celtics team played in an NBA that consisted of 8 teams with two of them winning 21 and 25 games respectively. They got taken to 7 games by a .500 Royals team in the playoffs.
I don't know how old you are but the 75 and 76 Reds were fantastic as were the A's of 71-75 and the Orioles of 69 and 70.
It goes with the cluster of that post. Even with editing I can’t get rid of the bold.
Those are all basically before my time, my first sports memory is the ALCS winning HR by Chris Chambliss in 1976, but I was just 9 then. I agree with @mauf that the 1998 Yankees and 2018 Red Sox, along with the 1986 Mets, are the three greatest baseball teams of my (conscious) lifetime.
The 2007-2008 Celtics weren’t truly great?
I remember watching Chambliss's HR. I was very pissed off at Howard Cosell when he rudely interrupted Keith Jackson, the play by play announcer after it went out. I didn't really hate the Yanks until they got Reggie in 77 so I was kind of neutral on the game believe it or not. Believe it or not Boston fans won't admit it but I believe we hated the Rangers and Knicks more, during the era from 68-75, give or take. That is when CBS owned the Yankees and most years they weren't that good until Big Stine took over in 73.
At least with the 2007 Patriots they did do something that had never been done before - kind of like the 2015-16 Warriors, who won the most games ever (73-9 - unreal) but couldn't close the deal at the end. For the Pats, they went 16-0 in the regular season, something nobody else had ever done. That is a MAJOR accomplishment, not something easily wiped away, not even by an odd SB loss.
I think you are confusing two different plays.
Yeah, the Jacobs run. They actually got decent penetration on that play. So close to it ending right there. Then, Asante missed his and the rest is history. Just a cursed drive from start to finish.
And they missed Leon Powe also. He was out. They had no real bench like they did in 08 and 2010.
That 2018 Red Sox team was having too much fun to lose. Re-watch some of those regular season games. Note how Beni, JBJ, and Betts would be flipping the ball back and forth, jogging to the dugout after recording another final out. They were just playing.
The Celtics not only swept the season series against the Lakers, they did it with an injured McHale limited in the first game in the old Gahhhden and absent altogether in the second in the Forum. Both games were comfortable wins for Boston.
And that team - despite missing Brady for four games - finished #3 in scoring offense and #1 in scoring defense, #1 in points differential, and #2 in yardage differential. The only games they lost that year were a non-Brady game when Brissett played with a broken thumb and lost to Buffalo 16-0, and then the home game vs. Seattle when the Pats had first and goal at the Sea 2 with 43 seconds left and incredibly couldn't punch it in. Not saying they SHOULD have won that game, but if that's your only "real" loss on the season, you've had a hell of a season.
Well, the 1986 Celtics are in the conversation for greatest ever in their sport. I would put them up there with the ‘18 Sox and ‘07 Patriots. It’s pretty nuts that most of us have been around for all of these teams.
It could be the greatest in terms of dominance, fame, historical importance, drama or improbability of their run, the assemblage of players, etc.
Thing is with those three that most decent fans or announcers will never forget any of the three names. And, like, who is another all time best front line? Finally, our small forward is the 6' 9" Larry Bird who averaged 10 rebounds per game for his career (non playoffs).
1962-63 58-22. NBA champs. 8 Hall of Famers and 2 other guys whose numbers are up on the rafters.
And Asante Samuel should have intercepted Manning's pass a play or two before the helmet catch. However, far as I'm concerned, what lost the game was having 4 or 5 possessions up a score and never making it two scores.
The 71 Bruins. I know they gagged to the Habs but for the Reg. season they were as good or more dominant then the 86 Celtics, who is one of our greatest.
Yes. I would think if you don't win the championship, you can't be on the list.
Yep. That team was a juggernaut. The first round sweep against Jordan going full supernova was a testament to how amazing they were.
Had the 71 Bruins won the Cup, they would definitely belong on that list. But their regular season dominance was helped by the league's expansion into Buffalo and Vancouver that season. And the result was the league adopted a balanced schedule, so the Bruins played 48 of 78 games against the 8 teams that were not part of the Original 6; combined record against these mostly sorry rosters was 38-6-4. Against the league's 2 next best teams that regular season (ignoring pre-Dryden Montreal), the Bruins went 2-3-1 against the Black Hawks of Hull/Makita/Esposito and 2-2-2 against the Rangers of Giacomin/Ratelle/Park (albeit those 2 losses happened late in the season when playoff seeding was pretty much set).
Don't even remember Peja and I watched a reasonable amount of NBA back then. Kareem, Worthy and oops, Kupchak? Knicks DeBusschere, Bradley and Reed from their championship team. Celtics Russell, Havlicek and Satch Sanders. Tangentializing here.
More shocking because the Giants gave the Pats a great game in the last game of the Reg. Season 38-35. And that was the most points the Pats gave up all year. The Pats were the no.4 defense in the league. We kind of knew they weren't as dominant as they were for the first 2/3 of the season, and they played decent but not great against Jags in the playoffs and worse against the Chargers and barely won that Title game. And the Giants were one of the hottest teams in football. It took me years to admit but they were better that day in Super Bowl 42 and deserved to win, pains me to say. The Giants were even a better team the next year in 08 and might have repeated if Burris literally didn't shoot himself in the foot.10-1 at that point, best record in the league. 2011 the Giants were lucky and didn't really deserve to go the SB. A much better Niners team handed them that game on a silver platter in the Title Game.
If you had told any Pats fan that they were going to hold the Giants to 17 points in the Super Bowl, there isn't a single one of us that wouldn't have taken that in a heartbeat. After all, as you point out, those Giants scored 35 against NE in the regular season finale. The Pats hadn't scored less than 20 points in a game all season. They scored 20 vs. the Jets in week 15, and 21 vs. the Chargers in the AFCCG but were still averaging 27.6 points a game over their last 5. It was just the perfect storm of suck in the Super Bowl that year. UGH.
The 2007 Red Sox - had 96 wins and then went 11-3 in the playoffs. They might have been the best Sox team of the 4 who won in this century.
Looking at Basketball Ref, he did have a very solid and long career. Maybe I remember little about him because the Kings get so little coverage, especially because they're in a conference with the Lakers and GS. The Kings best known time was the 01-02 Western Conf. finals when many feel they got screwed as so many close calls went to the Lakers, who won it, and the finals. Game 6 was the one complained about the most for bad, or fixed officiating.
