Recent Franchises That Could Have Been Great Dynasties
The whole "dynasty" definition in sports isn't what it used to be. No longer do we live in a world where teams can rattle off four straight championship seasons.
Today's dynasties have mainly become teams that are able to rattle off multiple championships over a longer period of time—see the San Francisco Giants, New England Patriots or San Antonio Spurs.
Blame that fact of life on free agency and the natural growth of the sports industry that came with it. Contracts boom nowadays, and teams are formed differently. Frequently, talent tends to follow the almighty dollar.
You could write off the whole dynasty piece if you wanted to, but who wants to do that? Adjusting our definition has given certain teams the chance to claim that title and certain ones a chance to fall short.
The goal here is to review 10 teams that missed the opportunity to be deemed a dynasty since 2000. These are teams that either won a championship and couldn't continue that trend or ones that got close multiple times.
Let's get started and find out what recent franchises could have been great dynasties.
Honorable Mention: Chicago Blackhawks
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The Chicago Blackhawks are featured as an honorable mention because they did manage to win two Stanley Cups (2009-10 and 2012-13) in a four-year span.
That doesn't quite make them a dynasty, but with all the changes applied to the definition, it puts them in the conversation.
Chicago's youth movement featuring Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews re-established the Blackhawks on the fly. They scored goals, pushed traditional teams to the brink and hoisted two Stanley Cups because of that.
Had they won one more championship, we could have hit them with that dynasty stamp. Instead, their status is up for debate.
Green Bay Packers
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The Green Bay Packers' march to the Super Bowl in 2010 was one for the ages.
Aaron Rodgers had just finished cementing himself as the clear-cut replacement to Brett Favre's throne, while the Packers defense was booming, thanks to the play of Charles Woodson, Clay Matthews and B.J. Raji.
That road to Super Bowl XLV went through the Chicago Bears in the NFC title game, and once the Packers finished dismantling their divisional foe, they moved on to face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Rodgers' 304 passing yards and three touchdowns carried the Packers offense all game long. He was named the MVP of the Super Bowl. But had the Packers defense not held strong in the final two minutes of the game, Pittsburgh could have walked away as the champion.
You'd think based on how young the defense was and how brilliant the Packers played offensively that they would be a prime candidate for dynasty status.
Sadly, Rodgers' team has been bounced from the playoffs every season since 2010.
Miami Heat
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The Miami Heat were a dynasty. But the reason they are on this list goes past face value.
When the Big Three came together in 2010 like the New World Order, powerful aspirations ran wild. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were able to jell quickly and take the Miami Heat to the NBA Finals each of the first four seasons they played together.
Despite getting there multiple times, the Big Three only walked away with two NBA titles (2011-12 and 2012-13) before dismantling last offseason. That made the Heat a dynasty that could have had so much more.
This squad had mega-dynasty written all over it. Too bad the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs had to throw a Western Conference wrench in those plans.
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San Francisco 49ers
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The San Francisco 49ers are the first team on this list that didn't win a championship. That may sound weird at first, but when you consider that they played in two straight NFC title games and a Super Bowl, it starts to make sense.
Jim Harbaugh's tenure as head coach of the Niners was one for the ages. The tumultuous, fiery personality that helped the 49ers achieve great things also wound up costing him his job.
No matter how crazy the man with khaki pants got, the Niners always performed. In the 2011-12 season, his first manning the sidelines, the team finished with a 13-3 record before losing to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game.
In 2012-13, the team made it to the Super Bowl, falling just short of being able to smooch the Lombardi Trophy—the Baltimore Ravens got that honor instead.
A final attempt at claiming football's biggest prize ended with the Seahawks' Richard Sherman making a special defensive play on a cold Seattle evening in January 2014.
Had fate dealt them a slightly different hand, Harbaugh could still be in San Francisco and the 49ers could have been deemed a modern-day dynasty.
Pittsburgh Penguins
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Whenever you have a great player on your roster, you always have a chance to win multiple championships. In the NHL, Sidney Crosby has been just that for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Crosby's talent has no bounds. He's a goal scorer, playmaker and an overall general on the ice. Knowing all of that, it's surprising that the Penguins only have one Stanley Cup to call their own during the Crosby era—injuries have also played a role in that.
The 2007-08 season saw the Penguins fall short of Lord Stanley's Cup. Behind Evgeni Malkin and Crosby, the team lost a tough series to the Detroit Red Wings.
Luckily, Pittsburgh bounced back and won it all the following season.
Had the Penguins won that first Cup over the Red Wings, their dynasty status would have been complete. Winning back-to-back championships in this day and age qualifies you for that title.
Texas Rangers
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The Texas Rangers are similar to the 49ers in the sense that they made a serious push for a championship and kept falling short.
Power hitting and power pitching turned the Rangers into an American League contender in 2010 and 2011. The Rangers won 90 or more games in both years (90 in 2010 and 96 in 2011).
Their trips to the World Series pitted them against two successful National League squads. First up was the San Francisco Giants—the most recent dynasty in baseball.
A loaded Giants team quickly dismantled the Rangers, winning the 2010 series 4-1.
Texas' return trip to the World Series was a lot closer. Going up against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, the Rangers used their big bats to compete. Sadly, Game 7 brought their season to a disappointing finish.
The Cardinals rode the arm of Chris Carpenter on their way to a 6-2 victory.
Since then, it's been nothing but a series of missteps for this squad. Perhaps one day it will be able to regroup and make another World Series push.
Seattle Seahawks
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The belief that one Marshawn Lynch run at the end of Super Bowl XLIX could have changed the course of history has to eat away at Seattle Seahawks fans. I mean, come on; it has to.
Head coach Pete Carroll's club was built in a unique way. The Seahawks took mid-round draft picks and turned them into superstars. Carroll's defensive vision and strength in coaching were the keys to the Seahawks' rapid development.
Then the arrival of quarterback Russell Wilson in 2012 changed everything. Seattle's smashing defense and Wilson's winning ways mixed to give the Seahawks a Super Bowl victory at the culmination of the 2013-14 season.
Keeping their core intact, the Hawks climbed all the way back to the big game before losing to the New England Patriots this past season.
The good news is that the Seahawks' shot for a dynasty isn't quite finished yet. Regardless, that last Super Bowl loss didn't help their chances.
Kentucky Wildcats
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The challenge of winning multiple championships in men's college basketball is extraordinarily difficult. Living through the whole "one-and-done" era has made it challenging for teams to build, mesh and come together for a championship run.
It's almost like pressing the reset button and creating something from scratch every year. In head coach John Calipari's world, he's become the master of that.
Coach Cal's rejuvenation of the Kentucky men's basketball program has been great to watch. The Wildcats, the pride of Lexington, got back to their winning ways, thanks to Calipari's recruiting acumen and coaching style.
When he arrived for the 2009-10 season, he immediately brought a sense of legitimacy back with him. Since then, the Wildcats have made five NCAA tournament appearances in six years to go along with a national championship back in 2012.
With so much talent and so many good players, Kentucky had a real shot at winning multiple national titles. Although the Wildcats have fallen short of that task, Coach Cal has brought a contender to the table each season.
Boston Celtics
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Before the trifecta of doom formulated on the shores of South Beach, Miami, there was another Big Three wrecking people up in the Northeast.
The Boston Celtics, led by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, took center stage in the Eastern Conference and became an immediate title contender.
Their first season together resulted in an NBA championship. Allen, Pierce and Garnett thrived, beating their old foes—the Los Angeles Lakers—in a tough six-game affair.
Instead of taking all of that energy and turning it into a special run, the "Boston Three Party" couldn't reclaim glory. The Celtics were bounced out of the playoffs the following year by the Orlando Magic before losing to the Lakers in the 2010 NBA Finals.
Boston fans will always have love for their Big Three. Without them, this franchise would still be struggling to find its identity after Larry Bird.
Butler Bulldogs
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It's so weird to think that the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team came from nowhere in the late 2000s and almost won back-to-back national titles.
Former head coach Brad Stevens—who's now with the Boston Celtics—proved to be one of the brightest young minds in all of sports. His creative schemes and ability to manufacture chances for his team drove the Bulldogs to a staggering level of greatness.
Though they never were able to get their hands on that national championship trophy, they pushed Duke and UConn to the brink in consecutive years.
From 2010 to 2011, the Bulldogs clawed their way to the top. Had things gone down a little differently, they would be right up there with some of the best college sports dynasties.
Philadelphia Eagles
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Few teams since 2000 have suffered as much as the Philadelphia Eagles. The problem with the Eagles is how they've suffered.
We aren't talking about the Cleveland Browns here. The Eagles have been one of the most successful franchises in terms of winning games over the last 15 years. Where Philadelphia's woes come from is the team's inability to finish.
Starting in 2002, the Eagles would go on to lose three straight NFC title games before finally breaking through and landing in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005.
As if all of that heartbreak wasn't enough, the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots in that Super Bowl, their lone appearance in the big game during that decade.
Having success and failure at the same time is rare. The Eagles were one team that embodied it.
Unless noted otherwise, all game scores, stats and information courtesy of Sports-Reference.com.
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