Sunday Special - The Keys to a Modern NBA Championship

Over the next few Sundays I'm going to break down and discuss the common trends of championship squads over the last quarter of a century.

Listed below are the NBA Finalists over the past 25 years. Do you spot any trends? How could teams such as Chicago, the Lakers, Boston and San Antonio repeatedly either win a championship or contest for a championship? What made them better than the one off appearers such as Dallas, Portland, Seattle and the Philidelphia's of this world?

2008-09 - LA Lakers def Orlando
2007-08 - Boston def LA Lakers
2006-07 - San Antonio def Cleveland
2005-06 - Miami def Dallas
2004-05 - San Antoino def Detroit
2003-04 - Detroit def LA Lakers
2002-03 - San Antoino def New Jersey
2001-02 - LA Lakers def New jersey
2000-01 - LA Lakers def Indiana
1999-00 - LA Lakers def Philidelphia
1998-99 - San Antonio def New York
1997-98 - Chicago def Utah
1996-97 - Chicago def Utah
1995-96 - Chicago def Seattle
1994-95 - Houston def Orlando
1993-94 - Houston def New York
1992-93 - Chicago def Phoenix
1991-92 - Chicago def Portland
1990-91 - Chicago def LA Lakers
1989-90 - Deroit def Portland
1988-89 - Detroit def LA Lakers
1987-88 - LA Lakers def Detroit
1986-87 - LA Lakers def Boston
1985-86 - Boston def Houston
1984-85 - LA Lakers def Boston

FYI - I got all of these correct, excluding the final one, without checking any websites. Originally I said LA Lakers def Phily - I'm sure it's one Larry would have wanted to forget anyway)

Some of the names to play on these teams include Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Isiah Thomas, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, James Worthy, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Dwayne Wade, Joe Dumars, Clyde Drexler, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Patrick Ewing, Dwight Howard, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, Manu Ginobli, Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki and Antoine Walker. (just seeing if you read the entire list)

While all of these players are in elite, not all of them won an NBA Championship (or not as yet have won an NBA Championship). Over the coming weekend's I'm going to break down some common factors in each of these winning teams and then study how they all work together, but not without each other.