"3-peat"... do people not understand that an 8-peat is the bar?

[DaSeba5]

Ask my computer.

Gotta ammend that shit everytime it fcks up.

Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't

[La Frescobaldi]

That's a crock of shit.

Half the time his teams were comparable to Russell's.
'

la f: "I've come to the conclusion that you and I see things too differently, my dear. I prefer to live in a world of facts, while you.... {shakes head} so I'm going to have to ask for a divorce."
plowk: "I don't understand!!"
la f: "my point entirely. Good bye my Darling, I shall miss you...."
plowk: "how dare you tell me I don't know what I'm talking about!"

cavs, laz, poido leading a cast of thousands "and soooo.... he left her......
CRYING..... in the rain..... CRYING!!!.... crying..."

[Psileas]

when the phrase is ambigous and teams (or at least one team, the 40s, 50s Lakers) were, in the more meaningful sense, close. I get that there isn't a consecutive run of titles of which the number is close to 8 but, per yourself, that "really doesn't matter" to anything that I care about.

Yes, to sum up, this doesn't really matter if you want to talk about dynasties, 6/7 is dynasty material regardless of when this 0/1 happened (though it usually makes more sense to be somewhere within the streak). And it does matter at the same time when it comes to streaks. In that sense, a chronological series of 3/3+0/1+3/3 isn't close to an 8-peat or, in this case, a 7-peat, although you could only be one basket away from actually achieving it.

I won't repeat my arguments but I stand by my point in the previous post re: more teams, same standard deviation = trickier route to the title.
This isn't done to denigrate the Celtics achievements, theirs was probably the greatest dynasty in North American sports (though I don't really follow other US sports, and "soccer" football could plausibly claim equivalents, though typically as national, rather than nominal "world", champions). No this is just because as in my previous post I have no idea what the point of the thread was (though the possibility that it's to irrate LeBron fans and mitigate his achievements, which OP, despite otherwise excellent posting, has been known to do, has been suggested). If the thread were just celebrating the Boston dynasty I'd be right there with you. As it's dismissing/diminishing 3-peats (and past and future 3-peating teams); ignoring, at best, era arguments and crediting teams wins at the individual level, I'm not.

Diminishing a 3-peat is not my own type of act, I know how hard it is and it had always been to achieve (I think the OP tries to focus a lot on the "streak" thing), but people like to/tend to use the "different era, different context for back then" criteria as a means of diminishing (not celebrating/"respecting in a different way") an 8-peat, despite the fact that it was unique even for its time. I've almost never seen anyone in a message board see both sides and bring a balanced view, it always has to be seen as either a "weak era with only 8 teams" or a "fully competitive era", and since message boards are dominated by youngsters, the first opinion takes the largest piece of the cake. The thing is, an era similar to the 60's is unlikely to ever return, so, if all we do is use such kinds of one-sided, only modern-era favoring arguments, we achieve nothing more than contributing to a significant portion of history being forgotten, since most people forget things that are out of their line of living and thinking, especially if it's grown on them that these things were/are "inferior", not just different.
While talking about different era arguments, btw, you can't ignore the vast differences between the Mikan era and Russell's era either, so, Minny's championship string has to be viewed in a different perspective compared to Boston's as well.

[Jax]

People act like "3-peat" is some sort of gold standard for achieving absolute greatness. F*ck No. Bill Russell 8-peated. Bill Russell is to achievement what Wilt Chamberlain is to sheer individual ability and dominance. Russell accomplished things so far out of reach people fail to comprehend the magnitude of his accomplishements and his involvement within them. HE set the bar for championships, not Jordan not Kobe not anyone else. He's alone at the top and no one is close. Until somebody comes along and wins at least 5 MVP's, 8-peats and wins 11 rings (at least 8 of which he'd be the unanimous finals MVP) Bill Russell is THE gold standard for 'ships' equating to greatness.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

[Stringer Bell]

I don't think anyone seriously expects any team to equal the Celtics' 8 straight championships.

It's a little weird, after the Celtics in 69', no one repeated for almost 20 years. Then there was a whole bunch of repeat champs, including three 3-peats.

If a team wins 4 in a row, I'll be surprised and really, really impressed.

[moe94]

Sick life

I burst out laughing.

[Angel Face]

8 peat is easy if you're team is stacked and playing against taxi drivers.

[JohnFreeman]

League isn't full of 5 foot white guys anymore.

[TheWeeknd]

op is either 65 or has nothing going for him in present times

[Marchesk]

The Bulls winning 6 of 8 is up there with what the Celtics did. Keep in mind that Jordan left to go play baseball. After all was said and done, people were seriously arguing that Chicago could have won 8 in a row had MJ stayed around, and maybe 9 if he wanted to put off retirement another year.

Russell is the greatest winner, but he got drafted into the perfect situation. Ask any Wilt fan that. Jordan was drafted to a bad team and had to wait until he had the teammates and coach to win. And also for the great 80s teams to decline.

All situations are not equal. Bill won the most, but he also played with the most HOFers and had one of the GOAT coaches. It was a very stable situation for him. Compare Bill's career to Wilt and there is a world of difference in their circumstances.

[ImKobe]

The Bill Russell Celtics dominated their era more than any other NBA team ever will, due to the lack of talent and teams, but no one will ever come close in the modern era. If MJ didn't retire, maybe the Bulls would have pulled it off.