Boston might just win, but enough with all the championships

The Bears are a great franchise in football.  Everyone in the football world remembers their incredible run the Super Bowl in 1985.  They're one Super Bowl.  No one goes around saying that it is their eighth championship.  No one makes list showing the Bears with eight championships.

This is because the Super Bowl was the beginning of the modern NFL.  After the merger, it became a nation spanning league.

So, why are we counting all these championships that happened before the NBA merged with the ABA?

Before the merger, the Celtics and the (Minneapolis) Lakers were right there winning titles with the St. Louis Hawks, the Rochester Royals, the Syracuse Nationals, and the Kentucky Colonels.  (Which one was actually in the ABA?  Do you know?  You probably don't because this was before the modern NBA.)

When Boston won its first title in 1957, the league had eight teams in two times zones.  By the end of the amazing run in 1966 the league had expanded to nine teams.

Take a look at the 1966 and 1977 NBA.  Which one looks like today's league?

Boston is a great franchise in basketball.  They have won the Larry O'Brien trophy four times.  And like Chicago, they have a greater history in a very early version of the league.

Larry O'Brien trophy is the name of the trophy given to the NBA champion starting in 1977, after the merger - after the league expanded to 22 teams and was really a *national* basketball association.

Here's a for real list of NBA Larry O'Brien winning champions, presented the same way NFL Super Bowl champions are represented:

Los Angeles Lakers - 11

Chicago Bulls - 6

San Antonio Spurs - 5

Boston Celtics - 4

Golden State Warriors - 4

Detroit Pistons - 3

Miami Heat - 3

Houston Rockets - 2

Cleveland Cavaliers - 1

Dallas Mavericks - 1

Several other teams have one an NBA championship, but I had to include Dallas since they are battling for their second against Boston battling for their fifth.

Only eight teams have more than one Larry O'Brien, so Dallas has the chance to join an elite club.

If Boston wins, no one will say "wow, they've surpassed the Warriors and caught up to the Spurs."  Absolutely no one will.

And, of course, if Boston wins, every sports yak will say that this is Boston's one-billionth trophy.

No one in football would call the Bears next championship their ninth.   They would say it was their second.

The NBA should do the same with the Larry O'Brien.  That is the "Super Bowl" of this great sport.  It should be put into the correct context.