The time has come.  I’m sick to death of this debate every February and June on what is and isn’t a dynasty anymore.  The Patriots, the NY Giants, the San Francisco Giants, the Spurs, the Heat, the Wings, the Blackhawks.  So often I hear this question anymore: “is team X now a dynasty?”  Well the fact is that they are, its just not the way they used to be.

Think about it.  In the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s things in pro sports were so much different.  There were less teams, there were no salary caps, and very little free agency.  You could build these dominant teams, keep them together, and they had less competition then teams do today.  There is so much more now days for teams to overcome.  Every league now has at least 30 teams, 3 of the 4 league’s have a cap and while MLB doesn’t have a cap they do have a luxury tax that holds the big market teams somewhat at bay.  It is just simply different, so we need to adapt to them.

You can’t just look at the rings.  The Spurs for example have 4 rings in a 9 year span.  But they have been the most consistent team in the NBA for the last 15 seasons.  Their accomplishments in that time are incredible.  10 division titles and 5 appearances in the finals in that time.  They’re a dynasty.  I don’t care that it’s strung out over a 15 year period, they’re still a dynasty to me because in that time they’ve be amongst the NBA’s elite EVERY SINGLE SEASON.

I would put the Detroit Red Wings in that same class from 93/94 – 08/09.  In that time, the Red Wings won 4 Cups, finished 1st in the West 9 times, finished 3rd in the West only twice (they finished 4th in 2000 but only because of divison winners automatically getting higher seeds, they had the 2nd highest point total in the league) and in one of those seasons they won the Cup.  Again, I don’t care that ironically it as well was over a 15 year span, this was a dynasty.

In the NFL you have the Pats who again over a large time frame (01-present) are a dynasty.  3 rings, 5 Super Bowl appearances, 5 times they had the best record in the AFC, only missed the playoffs twice in that time.  One of those times they were without Tom Brady for the season….and they still finished 11-5!  Again, it is not the old school way of thinking of a dynasty, but times change and the way of thinking of what a dynasty is has to as well.

It doesn’t mean we can’t have them the way they were.  The Bruins nearly had their 2nd Cup in 3 years, and had they done it and then gone on to win again next season then of course that would be a dynasty.  But it just isn’t happening the way it used to.  A lot of things aren’t happening the way they used to in the world.  We don’t go to Blockbuster to get a movie anymore, we don’t go to HMV to get albums anymore, family shows like Full House have been replaced by high quality shows like Honey Boo Boo, you have to change with the times no matter how cute Michelle was compared to that….thing.

The Heat are getting close, they’ve now been to the finals 3 straight years, won twice, and if you want to go over the entire Dwayne Wade era they’ve won 3, been to the finals 4 times and been in the conference finals 5 times.  The Blackhawks are getting closer too.  3 conference finals, 2 Cups in 5 years.  Neither I would classify as a dynasty just yet, but I don’t think either team has to win another ring to earn that title.  4 in a row or 5 in 7 years just isn’t realistic anymore.  Adjust with the times and appreciate the greatness that exists in today’s sporting world.

 

Follow me on twitter, I have tried to come up with something witty but this is my 3rd of 4 I plan on writting tonight so I got nothing @TJ_Soups

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