2023-05-25 13:42:00
The Denver Nuggets will play their first NBA Finals next Thursday (they had already participated in the Finals… ABA, in 1976). With this first participation there are now only five franchises left to never have experienced the intoxication of the Finals. You know it ?
Five. Five franchises of losers, five franchises that had no luck, five franchises that never knew how to seize the wind at the right time. The reasons are multiple, each team has its own to explain this void on the CV, but following the Raptors in 2019 it is therefore a new market which leaves the family of nullos.
These five franchises? Here they are
The Wolves first of all, how not to start with this good old organization which struggles to exist more than two seasons per quarter century. 33 NBA seasons, 10 first round eliminations and a Conf Final in 2004, thanks to a Kevin Garnett who then accumulates more talent than the addition of the talent of 95% of the players in the history of the franchise. Talent but a lot of drama, years of wandering but why not a bright future thanks to Anthony Edwards, but in 2023, if we had to classify the franchises in the history of the NBA, um, we’ll let you finish the sentence.
In the lose department, the Hornets are a stone’s throw away, saved by a relative hype in the 90s thanks to their… colors. Still doing well, huh. 34 seasons in the NBA, six qualifiers for the first round and four Conf semi-finals (1193, 1998, 2001 and 2002), wow, very impressive. Some real players obviously (Larry Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, Kemba Walker…) but overall still a step behind the average and something tells us that this will not change in 2024.
The Pelicans? A name to squat the Parc des Oiseaux in Villars-les-Dombes, not the North American basketball championship. More seriously, New Orleans has the youngest franchise in the League (21 years of existence, eleven with the Hornets as a name and ten as Pelicans) so its (absence of) record is ultimately quite logical. Six first rounds, two semi-finals of Conf, Chris Paul in the past and Anthony Davis yesterday, that’s what we must remember from these two decades in Louisiana, hit, let’s remember, by hurricane Katrina which forced the franchise to relocate two years in Oklahoma City.
We get out of the tunnel a bit then, since we continue with the Grizzlies, who have for them the particularity of having an empty record but a fairly high love rating for a lease. The Grit and Grind period has witnessed several solid epics from the likes of Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and other Tony Allens, the current generation is making a lot of people salivate even if currently Ja Morant is unfortunately in the headlines without needing to dunk. Globally ? 28 years of good performance despite the vacuum of the Vancouver years and an air pocket between 2007 and 2010. Nine first rounds, three semi-finals and a Conf Final in 2013, a real team that moves the West but a cabinet that remains empty.
Last but not least, the franchise that is sometimes called the queen of losers: the Los Angeles Clippers. 38 years of Clippers in Los Angeles, 53 years in total between Buffalo, San Diego and LA, but still no trace of a damn NBA Finals. 8 first rounds, 8 conf semi-finals, 1 conf final, that’s still very little. The squad of the 2010s led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin in particular has never been far from reaching the top, but in the end something will have been missed, always, every time. The arrival of a few stars in recent years had inflated the local hype, but in the end we are still on a franchise whose all-time top scorer has scored 12,000 points and is called Randy Smith.
The Grizzlies, the Clippers, the Wolves, and the Hornets / Bobcats / Pelicans mic-mac between Charlotte and New Orleans, these are the five locations where the word NBA Finals is unknown to the battalion. Before that changes? We remain simple Hexperts but let’s say that water will perhaps flow under the bridges by then.
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