The Oklahoma City Thunder will be dethroned as the NBA's reigning champions in the next week or so. If it makes them feel any better, the Boston Celtics know how that feels and then some, as they too failed to repeat when the chance presented itself. However, the Celtics have known for quite some time that repeating is hard.
It requires a clean bill of health from everyone - OKC was very much not healthy like Boston wasn't last year - and favorable matchups - New York was built to limit the Jays while San Antonio had Oklahoma City's number all season long.
There were other aspects that went wrong for both teams, but the bottom line is that winning two in a row is pretty difficult. The last team to pull it off was the 2018 Golden State Warriors, which, lest we forget, was perhaps the most talented team ever assembled. Even so, the wear and tear broke that team down entirely when they tried to three-peat.
Remember that it got so bad that Golden State had two losing seasons afterward due to extensive injuries to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson before rounding back into form in 2022. The point is that winning multiple titles is possible, but doing it in consecutive years is a true challenge.
Celtics haven't repeated since the Bill Russell days
You read that correctly. The Celtics last repeated as NBA Champions in 1969, which was Russell's last year with the team. Since then, they've won seven more titles, but none of which came consecutively: 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008, 2024.
They closest they have come was 1985, when they barely lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, which may or may not have been influenced by Larry Bird's broken hand, but the fact remains that repeating requires so many things to go right.
Last year, Boston got its production from its two best players, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but also depended on Al Horford and Jrue Holiday, who were only aging, while hoping Kristaps Porzingis wouldn't have availability issues as he did during their run to Banner 18. Look what happened.
It's for that reason that, no matter who wins between San Antonio and New York in these next few weeks, winning it again will be a much tougher task for either team. Winning a title has now become more of a war of attrition than ever, and that's especially the case when it comes to the prospect of repeating.
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