Fortunate NBA Champions (2001-2016)

Replied to An Opinionated Guide to Ranking Ethical NBA Championships in the 21st Century by Russell Samora (The Pudding) I believe there have only been five truly ethical NBA champions in the last 25 years: teams that don’t need an asterisk by their title. Writing for The Pudding, Russell Samora recently put together a list of the “most ethical” NBA champions, wherein he used a formula (with many entertaining graphs) to determine, going back to 2001, which NBA champions benefited the least and most from missed games against their playoff rivals. I followed the NBA closely for most of the relevant period, let us say 2001-16, so I can offer my own, non-stat-infused take, on which champions had the most good fortune in the misfortune of their rivals (not that I am opposed to creative stat-takes on the NBA, mind you). See my list of “fortunate” NBA champions from 2001-16 below (I refuse to use “ethical,” which I think is a new entry in the genre of the internet leading to the creation of…