The Top 10 Greatest Teams That Couldn't Finish the Job
Winning a championship is the most difficult thing an athlete can accomplish, as it takes the perfect amount of skill, good health and more luck than some would think.
And just because everything's peachy during the regular season, as we saw with the Golden State Warriors' quest for a second straight NBA championship, the playoffs is where teams get desperate and refuse to roll over and go away.
Golden State isn't the only great team that wasn't able to finish the job and win a title after a stellar regular season. These are the top 10 teams that failed to leave their marks on the record books, exiting the playoffs before anyone believed they would.
10. 1995 Cleveland Indians
1 of 10
The 1995 Cleveland Indians finished with an MLB-best 100-44 record during the strike-shortened campaign, making their 100 victories in 18 fewer games even more remarkable.
Hypothetically speaking, had the Tribe played a full 162-game season that year and kept the same winning percentage, they would've finished with 112 wins, which, at the time, would have made them the second-best regular-season team in MLB history.
Boasting six All-Stars that year and plenty of future ones, Cleveland's magic ran out during the World Series against the Atlanta Braves, who won the Fall Classic in six games, giving Cleveland yet another heartbreak as it searched for a world championship.
9. 1990-91 UNLV Runnin' Rebels (Men's Basketball)
2 of 10
The 1990-91 UNLV Runnin' Rebels men's hoops team was one of the most polished, talented and dominant in NCAA history, as it appeared in back-to-back Final Fours in 1990 and '91, carrying a two-year record of 69-5 in that span.
Led by future NBA lottery picks Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacey Augmon, the Rebs were favored to repeat as champs in 1991 as they entered their Final Four rematch with the Duke Blue Devils—who UNLV had beaten down by 30 points in the previous national title game.
Trying to become the first undefeated team in NCAA men's basketball since the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers, Duke shocked the basketball universe by defeating the Runnin' Rebels to prevent them from getting a chance to defend their crown.
8. 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks
3 of 10
Coming off a stunning NBA Finals defeat against the Miami Heat a year prior—in which they lost four games in a row to lose grip of the series—the Dallas Mavericks looked like a team on a mission during the 2006-07 season.
Marching their way through the regular season by winning 67 games, the Mavs were led by league MVP Dirk Nowitzki.
As they entered their first-round matchup with the Golden State Warriors, though, things didn't seem right, as Dubs head coach at the time Don Nelson had Dallas' number from his familiarity as its former coach.
Nelson proved that was the case, as Golden State stunned Nowtizki and the Mavs to become the first No. 8 seed to top a No. 1 seed in a best-of-seven NBA playoff series.
7. 2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats (Men's Basketball)
4 of 10
While the aforementioned UNLV Runnin' Rebels team of 1990-91 had a chance to become the first team to match the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers and go undefeated through a season, the 2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats had a bigger goal in mind: 40-0.
Head coach John Calipari had arguably the best group of players he has ever had in his career, mixing together returning starters Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Willie Cauley-Stein, Marcus Lee, Dakari Johnson and Alex Poythress with his usual freshman All-Americans.
And for 38 games, that group proved to be the best in all of college basketball.
It all changed in the 39th game in a Final Four rematch against the Wisconsin Badgers, though, who knocked off the heavily favored Wildcats to shoot down all talk of "The Greatest Team Ever."
Everyone and their grandmother had the Cats winning the national title in 2015, yet the Badgers were determined to prove that, sometimes, talent doesn't always trump all and that games aren't won on paper.
6. 2011-12 Green Bay Packers
5 of 10
If there's one team in the past five years that some seem to forget about being flat-out dominant, it's the 2011-12 Green Bay Packers.
After going 15-1 in the regular season behind the golden arm of quarterback and league MVP Aaron Rodgers—who tossed 45 touchdown passes and just six interceptions and threw for over 4,600 yards—Green Bay was the team to beat, as it secured home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
What happened next was something no one would have predicted.
Hosting the New York Giants in an NFC Divisional Game, Eli Manning and his G-Men shocked Green Bay at Lambeau Field, sending the proud franchise to a crushing defeat and eliminating the hope of a dream season ending with the Lombardi Trophy.
How good was this team? Heading into their Week 15 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs, many thought the Packers could contend for an undefeated season—until they lost two of their final four games, including the Giants loss.
5. Alex Ovechkin's Washington Capitals
6 of 10
I don't need to sit here and remind Washington Capitals fans about all the team's shortcomings since future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin has been with the team because they're all well-documented.
One of the premier talents to ever play the sport, Ovechkin has put up insane regular-season stats and led his team to top seeds heading into the playoffs, but his best hasn't been good enough to even get the Caps to a conference final.
Winning the Presidents' Trophy twice in the past seven seasons—given annually to the team with the most regular-season points—Ovechkin's 2009-10 and 2015-16 teams appeared to have the best chance at hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Like each season since Ovechkin arrived, though, the Caps are still searching for their whiff of championship glory, even with all the talent and regular-season success they have had.
4. 2001 Seattle Mariners
7 of 10
The aforementioned 1995 Cleveland Indians were a great team with a serious chance at becoming an all-time historic squad, but the 2001 Seattle Mariners were even better, as they tied the best regular season ever witnessed in MLB history.
Finishing with an absurd record of 116-46, the M's looked as if they were primed to march through the postseason and win their first World Series in franchise history.
Like other teams on this list, though, Seattle found out the playoffs can be a different animal.
Even with American League MVP and Rookie of the Year Ichiro Suzuki guiding them, the Mariners were incapable of even reaching the Fall Classic, getting dealt a crushing defeat in the ALCS by the New York Yankees in five games.
This Mariners team not winning a championship might be the biggest shock in MLB history.
3. 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings
8 of 10
The 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings were an absolute juggernaut of a team, finishing with a record of 62-13-7 and totaling 131 points—which was second-best in NHL history behind the star-studded Montreal Canadiens of 1976-77.
Unlike those Canadiens, though, the Red Wings couldn't finish the job, as the Colorado Avalanche proved to be their kryptonite in the playoffs, beating them in the Western Conference Final in six games.
After scoring the third-most goals in the NHL that season (325) and allowing the fewest (181), Detroit's balanced offensive attack of Sergei Federov, Steve Yzerman and Paul Coffey couldn't muster much against the Avs, netting just five goals in the four losses during the series.
2. 2015-16 Golden State Warriors
9 of 10
The most recent addition to this list of great regular-season teams that couldn't finish the job, the Golden State Warriors had all the makings of an all-time great, but they let their confidence and cockiness get in their own way.
After overcoming a 3-1 deficit to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals to reach their second straight NBA Finals, the Dubs became victim to history—allowing the Cleveland Cavaliers to come back from that same 3-1 deficit.
Everyone believed Golden State was the best team ever after finishing with a record 73 wins and boasting a star-studded and balanced lineup led by back-to-back league MVP Stephen Curry.
After poking a sleeping bear in LeBron James by taunting him, though, the Warriors showed that a little more humility may have been all they needed to repeat as champions.
1. 2007-08 New England Patriots
10 of 10
More than just the 18-0 record entering their Super Bowl matchup with the New York Giants, statistically speaking, the New England Patriots looked to be the most unstoppable team in NFL history.
Led by league MVP Tom Brady and his then-NFL-record 50 touchdown passes, the Pats were the most explosive team the league had ever seen, finishing with a plus-19.7 point differential and, at the time, the most points in a season with 589.
The Giants didn't care about the Pats' bravado and records, though, as they confidently believed they could compete and defeat New England following a tough Week 17 matchup between the two teams.
And the G-Men were right, as they limited the big plays and stunned the football world by giving the Patriots their lone loss of the season to win the Super Bowl with a 17-14 victory.
