History Shows Regular Season Record-Breakers Rarely Win Championships

None of the teams that set the regular season wins records in the MLB, NFL, or NHL won a championship.

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After Golden State's Game 1 loss to Oklahoma City, a $100 bet on the Warriors to win the NBA Finals would only net you $10.

It’s no surprise Golden State was the odds-on favorites to win their second straight title. Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook oddsmaker Jeff Sherman had the team at 11-10 odds to win the NBA Finals just five days ago, better than Cleveland's 7-5 mark, and much better than either Oklahoma City (15-4) or Toronto (100-1). It seems only logical that the team who sets its league’s record for regular-season wins would be an overwhelming favorite to take care of business and bring the title home the same year, right?

Only it’s not. At least in the other three major sports. None of the teams with the regular season wins record in the MLB, NFL, or NHL won a championship—and two of them didn’t even make it to the the finals. Three standout squads over the last 20 years have set a DUBious standard the Warriors—now down two games to one to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals—are desperately trying to avoid.

None of the teams with the regular season wins record in the MLB, NFL, or NHL won a championship—and two of them didn’t even make it to the the finals.

The New England Patriots, famously, became the first NFL team to ever go 16-0 while scoring more points and recording the highest point-differential of any team to ever play. Tom Brady and Randy Moss also set touchdown records at their respective positions. They went into the Super Bowl undefeated at 18-0, but lost to a resilient New York Giants team that held them to only 14 points.

New England had scored no fewer than 20 points in any game that season and at least 30 points in 13 of its 18 games prior to the Super Bowl. This game may have been a fluke, but it stands as arguably the greatest upset in NFL history.

The 2001 Seattle Mariners tied the 1906 Chicago Cubs’ 95-year-old record of 116 victories. They led the league in runs scored while allowing the fewest runs. Unfortunately for them, they happened to run into the three-time reigning champion New York Yankees, who defeated them in five games in the ALCS. The best regular season team in history didn’t even make it to a sixth game—despite finishing 21 games ahead of the Bronx Bombers. For the record, the 1906 Cubs lost that year’s World Series to a White Sox team that was known as “The Hitless Wonders” since they batted just .230 as a team that season.

In the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings finished 1996 with 28 more points than any other team that season en route to a 62-13-7 record. But after losing five games in the first two rounds, they ultimately lost in six games to a the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals. The Red Wings finished with nine playoff losses in 19 playoff games despite having just 13 losses in 82 regular season games.

Three all-time teams that couldn’t seal the deal. Yes, Michael Jordan's 72-10 Chicago Bulls won the NBA title, but other recent failures across the sporting spectrum illustrate how anything can happen in the postseason. Bad teams can get hot and good teams can go cold. Golden State has looked remarkably vulnerable at times this postseason and just might be a Steph Curry twisted ankle or Russell Westbrook GOD Mode game away from joining this historic trifecta.

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