The most satisfying series finales in NBA history

No. 4: 1996 Chicago Bulls

They were the exception to the rule that no one ever roots for Goliath, which is fitting, because there were few accolades left for Michael Jordan to achieve, and after they won here, he crossed that one off his list as well.

Maybe it was the fact that Jordan had been taken away from us all so abruptly and so far ahead of his time that we were just so happy to have him back and rooted accordingly, even though it was counterintuitive to everything we believe in as sports fans. It’s why Thrones fans rooted for Dany and Jon and not Cersei or Stannis (well, that, and the fact that the latter two were somewhat psychopathic). It didn’t make sense to pull for the bully.

And yet there I was, as a 13-year-old Knicks diehard, rooting for Jordan to get another ring once he got to the Finals (I was obviously rooting for an upset in round two, and still dispute a John Starks traveling call late in Game 4 that could have altered that series. I have receipts!). If Jordan didn’t win, after all he’d been through to get back to that point, it would have seemed…wrong in some odd way.

So yeah, the GOAT makes the list. That being the case, there’s a definite gap between the top three and everyone else…