Whos the GOAT franchise?

[Kiss of Death]

All-Time: Celtics

Since 1990: Spurs

[DonaldSanders]

Warriors were one of the absolute worst franchises for basically 20+ years of this 30 year period. Yes, success lately but they looked like the Kings for decades...

As a Warrior fan since the late 80s, can confirm. This is why I make no apologies for the KD years

Kind of a weird question though to say GOAT but to cut off by a certain year. Any discussion of GOAT franchise should always have the Boston Celtics.

[TheWhiteMamba]

Lakers, they have 17 titles, they have the highest average star power of all the teams during history, they're in LA, a huge market with Hollywood...

[AdagioPace]

top5 (without the 1990-2022 arbitrary requisite)

1-Lakers
2-You can't simply ignore the Celtics in such a discussion
3/4 -The Warriors have an argument over the Spurs (multiple runs even though several years of worse than mediocre)
5- Sorry Chicago but Jordan is not enough....

[lonzo_pelota]

the team with Kareem, Wilt , West, Magic, Kobe, Shaq, Worthy & soon to be Gasol & eventually King James in their rafters

[JN61]

I don't think Chicago is the GOAT franchise at all. What other thing relevant other than drafting Jordan and Rose they did? And even after drafting Rose, they had terrible luck with that injury and struggled to put up a strong and competitive team. The Warriors for me are the GOAT franchise, they've always have found some success and for the past 8 years they're on top of it.

Ridiculous take. Since 1990 season warriors have missed the playoffs 21 times.

[JN61]

top5 (without the 1990-2022 arbitrary requisite)

1-Lakers
2-You can't simply ignore the Celtics in such a discussion
3/4 -The Warriors have an argument over the Spurs (multiple runs even though several years of worse than mediocre)
5- Sorry Chicago but Jordan is not enough....

What is argument here? Warriors missed almost 2x as many playoffs as bulls did in this timespan while bulls winning more championships. Seems like a heavy personal bias rather than objective take.

[JN61]

the reason i put chicago as da goat is because of the 90s runs... no team, and i mean even the lakeshow, has been able to replicate wat the bulls were able to accomplish. the 90s bulls was the greatest dynasty the nba has ever seen and wat they accomplished no team can come close to it.ya i kno there irrrelevant in todays nba, but if we are including the 90s they are at top.

The Celtics won more titles in a row than the Bulls won in total. Slow down there fella.

ya in an era where there was like 8 teams in the da league. joke

Remove all the teams which missed the playoffs last year and is the league even more talented or less talented because less roster spots? Food for thought.

[Knightfall]

As a Bulls fan I'd have to say it's the Celtics hand down. 17 championships don't lie.

Bulls only have 6 their a long way from that discussion and ownership has shown to be cheap plenty of times.

Lakers didnt recognize 5 of their championships in Minnesota until relatively recently in the sports world and still acknowledge them barely in their own building and franchise.

Knicks. Great player history. Great location. Even a championship. However the last 25 years have been pretty hard for them.

Warriors? Were talking about historical impact here. A nice 7 year run doesnt pop you up the rankings like that. Especially following the long draughts in between.

Spurs do have the argument of being the only team with a winning record against every team in the NBA. That is impressive.

[ODanseTron]

Bulls had the GOAT player who made their otherwise before and after incompetent franchise look good for a time period.

Lakers or Celtics are the GOAT franchise. Depends on how much you value more modern era success compared to 60s and 80s success but they're pretty much even.

Spurs, Warriors or Heat are probably up there after that.

[drchaos]

Lakers started winning championships out of the box in the forties and fifties with Mikan

They were contenders again with Jerry West.

They then rebuilt things around Kareem and Magic in the showtime era.

They came back again with Shaq and Kobe.

Got back on top again with Lebron and AD.

They are alone at the top.

Celtics get second place.

[Johnny Bball]

Spurs for me. Always liked an underdog and a city that size (not a destination or large market) and like SAS could not have been able to sustain that success without excellent ownership and staff. SAS are an outlier.

[CraftylikeaFox]

We all hate to admit it but it's the Lakers. They are the face of the league and have the strongest brand in the NBA. They were irrelevant for years, posting losing records for multiple seasons, and still managed to sign Lebron James. All NBA media completely revolves around them. Tied for most championships. Relevant in pretty much every era. Not even close IMO even with the Celtics matching their ring total, Bulls 90's run, Spurs longevity, and the Warriors recent success.

and they won the chip out of nowhere when many teams looked legit. i was pissed but thats what they do. it doesnt matter how long theyre down, they keep getting back up.

And they always will. They will always be a threat to sign the top free agents and when they are bad for a few years they will acquire enough assets to be a top destination for stars looking for a trade. It's just the way it is. You become an instant celebrity playing there, an icon if you win a championship there, and it's a top 3 market to live in.

[JulesWinnfield]

Edit: didn’t see the parameters were from
90 onward. I answered for all time

Lakers easily over the Celtics to me. Same number of titles but the Lakers have many more finals appearances and have been a lot more consistent. Celtics titles are highly condensed into the Russell era.

I’m 41 years old. Hardly a kid. I only remember witnessing Boston win 1 title in my lifetime (too young to remember 86 or any of the Bird ones) I’ve witnessed the Toronto Raptors win just as many titles. Ive witnessed the Houston Rockets win more titles. And again at 41 I’m not a kid. Of course all the titles count, and I have great respect for their history and tradition, but there’s something to be said for consistency. The Lakers have had many more eras of excellence.

Those are the top 2 and after that it becomes a great debate. I’d lean Chicago just because the Jordan era was that powerful even though that’s just about all they have

[OBisHalJordan]

It's between the Celtics and Lakers. They are the greatest rivalry in Basketball History period. Which goes decades longer than what MJ and the Bulls accomplished. So that's my pick. Those two in a tie.

This is the only right answer.

The Celtics are the heroes of the NBA. The Russell-Auerbach Celtics are the greatest bball dynasty ever and were the most progressive team. They did more to integrate pro bball than any other franchise. Auerbach then goes on to be one of if the greatest GM ever. He builds two more championship teams (1970s: Hondo & Cowens; 1980s: Bird, McHale & Parish) and might have built a fourth if Bias and Lewis don't die tragically. The resurgence under Ainge and this year's team both in are in line with those great team in the sense that it's all about team success over individual accomplishments. All great bball teams do that to some extent but if "Celtic pride" means anything, it means this. The Lakers are villains: the flashy, "Hollywood," easily marketed and often a team that's bought not built. (And the Knicks are the tragic character that always loses). The rest of the NBA franchises don't matter (bit players) or are shades of these characters to one degree or another

[dhsilv2]

Since 90 it's the lakers and spurs and everyone else. The bulls being on either of those two's level is down right laughable.

[dhsilv2]

the reason i put chicago as da goat is because of the 90s runs... no team, and i mean even the lakeshow, has been able to replicate wat the bulls were able to accomplish. the 90s bulls was the greatest dynasty the nba has ever seen and wat they accomplished no team can come close to it.ya i kno there irrrelevant in todays nba, but if we are including the 90s they are at top.

The Celtics won more titles in a row than the Bulls won in total. Slow down there fella.

ya in an era where there was like 8 teams in the da league. joke

in how many title years were their 8 teams in the league?

[kobe_vs_jordan]

Lakers, Spurs or Celtics if we go back to the 80s

[dhsilv2]

When you think of the NBA you think Lakers.

I have never once thought that or even considered it...

[Dutchball97]

Since 1990:
1. San Antonio Spurs - 5 titles and insane consistency. The only years they weren't contenders is the one year before they got Duncan and the last few years.
2. Los Angeles Lakers - Couple of so-so years in the early 90s due to Magic's early retirement, a couple years of mediocrity when Shaq left and a more sizeable period of irrelevancy between Kobe declining and LeBron coming to town in the 2010s. Still got 6 titles (tied most in this period) and multiple periods of dominance with different cores.
3. Chicago Bulls - This mostly comes down to the 90s but while they didn't achieve a ton after the 2000s they weren't generally bad either.
4. Miami Heat - For how young they are, they were almost immediately a threat and have remained one of the top teams in the league since. While 3 titles is great it is a bit less than the rest of the top 5 but Miami's consistency still makes me prefer them over the next team.
5. Golden State Warriors - They were bad for a long time but the last 10 or so years with 4 titles and a couple more finals is still a huge achievement and I honestly don't see other teams that have a combination of title winning success and consistency through the years. Thought about Dallas but 1 title and a barren 90s made me hesitant to put them over GSW. Celtics are probably slightly better than Dallas since 1990 but pretty comparable overall and also behind teh Warriors for me.

All-Time:
1. Los Angeles Lakers - They have the most titles and what seperates them from the Celtics, is that the Lakers' success is more spread out over league history. The first NBA dynasty with Mikan, then West/Baylor, Wilt for a couple years, Kareem pretty much right after with Magic joining later, couple meager years and then they got Shaq/Kobe, another elite period when Gasol came to town and the most recent LeBron/AD title.
2. Boston Celtics - While most of their success came before the modern era, the Lakers and Celtics are still on a tier of their own.
3. Golden State Warriors - They did have a sizeable period of mediocrity but older teams simply have a big advantage here. The most recent run compared to their success in the 50s till 70s puts them as best of the rest for me.
4. San Antonio Spurs - They get some added value before the 90s due to the Gervin era and never being bad for any extended period of time but I'm not sure if it's enough to put them ahead of the Warriors as the Spurs won their titles with pretty much the same core.
5. Chicago Bulls - One of the top teams from 1990 onwards get enough pre-90s value to keep them ahead of some of the longer tenured teams that have had more situational success like the Pistons, Knicks and 76ers.