NBA Time Capsule: Ranking every NBA Finals series since 1990

21. 2001 – Los Angeles Lakers over Philadelphia 76ers (4-1)

This series is somewhat similar to the 2018 NBA Finals in that the 76ers were never going to beat the Lakers, similar to how the 2018 Cavs were never going to beat the Warriors. That doesn’t mean it can’t still be a fun series.

This is prime Allen Iverson competing as hard as any human being possibly could against one of the greatest teams that have ever played. Iverson didn’t have the supporting cast to make a real series out of it, but in Game 1 his individual dominance was enough to steal an overtime win on the road despite Shaq’s 44 points and 20 rebounds.

Iverson’s 30 first-half points and 48 total in Game 1 are his career-defining game, with his career-defining moment coming late in the game when he stepped over Tyronn Lue. Side note – it’s actually too bad for Lue that this happened because he took on Iverson in the fourth quarter and played incredible defense and no one remembers because he got meme’d.

The series was never in doubt, but it’s still worth watching on account of the Lakers’ dominance and Iverson’s individual excellence.

20. 2003 – San Antonio Spurs over New Jersey Nets (4-2)

So many little things that made this series great and had nothing to do with the games. For one thing, it’s the inaugural season for permanently putting the score on the screen. Up until this year, they would occasionally put up the score and if you missed it you had no idea what the score was or how much time was left – especially annoying at the end of games.

It also features a Game 4 interview by Stuart Scott with LL Cool J, Bill Walton calling the games and being his usual self, one minute of a French broadcast team calling the game followed by Brad Nessler uncomfortably calling the segment “sexy”, and Manu Ginobli with a full head of hair. And as a bonus, the games are pretty good too.

The playing style isn’t super fun, with Game 1 being the only time where either team hits triple-digits, but the last five games are all pretty close.

The best case I can make for watching this series is you get both Jason Kidd and Tim Duncan in their prime. Duncan’s Game 6 is one of the more dominant two-way games you can play as a big man, going 21-20-10-8, with some people still arguing to this day that he actually reached 10 blocks and the ultra-rare quadruple-double. I didn’t count the blocks myself to weigh in, but Duncan balances boring with dominance in that game like no one else can.