On June 14, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic 4–1 in the best of seven series to become the 2009 NBA Champions, the 15th Championship for the franchise. Kobe Bryant was awarded the 2009 NBA Finals MVP.
The Pistons became just the 3rd NBA franchise in 1990 to win “Back to Back” Championships, joining only the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics to do so. This very deep, extremely talented team was 2nd in the league in defense, lead by Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, James Edwards, Mark Aquirre, Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, John Salley, and the rest of the crew, finishing an impressive 59-23. With the best record in the East, Detroit knocked off the the best team in the West, the Portland Trailblazers. Portland came in with a 63-19 record, but the Pistons still easily won their 2nd straight NBA Championship defeating the Trailblazers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.
It was the first of Larry Bird’s three consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player seasons, and the Hall of Fame forward was just as dominant in the playoffs, taking the NBA Finals MVP Award with twenty-seven points and fourteen rebounds per game to defeat Magic Johnson and the hated Los Angeles Lakers in a thrilling seven-game series. The presented ring is identical in format to the second of three NBA Championship rings in Bird’s trophy case, issued to a worker in the Celtics’ front office.
A genuine diamond rests at center of an enameled logo shamrock on the ring’s face, encircled by raised text reporting, “Boston Celtics World Champions.” Left shank reveals an NBA logo with the year and word “Teamwork.” Right shank holds a Celtics logo making note of this Championship as the fifteenth in franchise history, framed by the recipient’s surname and the word “Pride.”
2012 Miami Heat NBA Championship Ring. LeBron James’ first taste of NBA Championship glory. The 2012 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2011–12 season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the conclusion of the season’s playoffs. The Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat defeated the Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder 4 games to 1 to win their second NBA title. Heat forward LeBron James was named the Finals MVP.
The Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks defeated the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, 4–2, to win their first NBA title.
The series was held from May 31 to June 12, 2011—the first to start before June 1 since the 1986 NBA Finals. Under the 2–3–2 rotation, the Miami Heat had home-court advantage; the Heat hosted Games 1, 2, and 6, and was set to host a deciding Game 7, had one been necessary. German player Dirk Nowitzki was named the Finals MVP. Nowitzki was the second European to win the award after Tony Parker (2007); he is the first German to win the award.
Going into the series, the Heat were heavy favorites with their newly acquired stars LeBron James and Chris Bosh along with returning star Dwyane Wade. The series was a rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals, which was won by the Heat in six games after Dallas blew a 2–0 series lead.
The Dallas Mavericks became the first team in NBA history since the institution of the 2–3–2 format to enter Game 3 tied at one, lose Game 3 and still win the Finals. The previous 11 times this occurred, the Game 3 winner went on to win the series.
The Dallas Mavericks also became just the 7th team, and the first since 1988, to come back and win the Finals after being down in the series two or more separate times (one game to none, and later two games to one). The previous 6 times this happened, the Finals ended in seven games; Dallas became the first team in NBA history to do it in six games.
The 1993 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1992–93 NBA season, featuring the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, and the Phoenix Suns, winners of 62 games and led by regular season MVP Charles Barkley. The Bulls became the first team since the legendary Boston Celtics of the 1960s to win three consecutive championship titles, clinching the “three-peat” with John Paxson’s game-winning 3-pointer that gave them a 99–98 victory in Game 6. This series was also notable in that the road team won each game, with the exception of Chicago in Game 4.
This series was aired on NBC with Marv Albert, Bob Costas (hosts), Mike Fratello, Magic Johnson, Quinn Buckner (analysts), Ahmad Rashād (Bulls sideline) and Hannah Storm (Suns sideline) (reporters) calling the action.
The 1993 NBA championship documentary, Three-Peat, marked the first time since 1982 that NBA Entertainment used film in on-court or off-court action
The 2006/07 season the Spurs would run over everyone as they were without a doubt the best team in the NBA. In the first round of the playoffs, the Spurs would defeat the Nuggets in 5 games, then the Suns in 6 games and the Jaz in 5 games in the conference finals. The NBA finals would win the Spurs 4th finals in their history. They would play the upstart Cavalier team with a rising young star named Lebron James and Cleveland playing in their first finals. It would be a quick lesson for the Cavaliers as they would sweep the Caviliers in 4 games. Horry was known as one of the game’s best clutch shooters and is considered by his peers as one of the game’s greatest clutch shooters in NBA history. He would play 17 seasons, winning 7 NBA Championships with his last 2 with the Spurs.
