Regular season’s best record does not guarantee a championship
The loss of the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA championship proved once again that the team with the best regular season record is not guaranteed a championship. Instead, the Warriors’ loss further strengthens the crowning achievement of the 1972 Dolphins.
This year’s Golden State Warriors set the record for most regular season wins by a National Basketball Association team, eclipsing by one win the record previously held by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. Yet, while the Bulls captured the NBA title, the Warriors lost a 7 game series to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Falling short in that goal has led many in Chicago to state that the Warriors’ record is tarnished. In fact, both Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman quickly declared their Bulls teams the greatest ever after the Warriors’ loss (see, for example, http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NBA/2016/06/20/Scottie-Pippen-Dennis-Rodman-1995-96-Bulls-were-greatest-team-ever/8331466444426/).
Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners did much the same thing in 2001. That year, they set an American League record by winning 116 games, which matched the National League’s 1906 Chicago Cubs for the most wins in baseball history. Just like the Warriors, however, the Mariners failed to capture a championship (as did the 1906 Cubs). In fact, after squeezing by the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series best-of-five, the New York Yankees needed just five games to eliminate the Mariners in the American League Championship Series.
In the National Hockey League, the 1995–96 Detroit Red Wings’ 62 regular season wins overtook the all-time record of 60 set by the 1976–77 Montreal Canadiens, and the team fell just one point short of the Canadiens’ record 132 points. In the playoffs, the Red Wings did not fare as well. The Red Wings lost 2 games to Winnipeg in the first playoff round and 3 to St. Louis in the second round. Colorado then upset the Red Wings in the conference championship round, 4 games to 2, thereby preventing the Red Wings from even reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.
In the National Football League, the 2007 New England Patriots won all 16 of their regular season games and entered the Super Bowl against the New York Giants at an impressive 18-0. But the Patriots lost a close game to the Giants, who finished the regular season 10-6 and who played all of their playoff games on the road. Just last year, the Carolina Panthers finished the regular season 15-1 but lost to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl.
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Success in the regular season is important for several reasons – home field advantage in the playoffs, favorable matchups, a playoff bye week – but having the best record is not always the recipe for a championship. This makes the 1972 Dolphins’ undefeated season all the more impressive. Not only did the Dolphins finish the regular season undefeated, but under the rules at the time, they had to go on the road to Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship before reaching the Super Bowl. They then won Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins by a score of 14-7, a game the Dolphins entered into as the underdog. As a result, NFL’s Perfectville has one and only one resident (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq9_a_Lt_sg), even though some continue to debate whether that team was indeed the best ever.