They say it’s tough to climb the mountain in professional sports, but sustaining your grip at the peak, while rivals conspire and conditions change is a crucible reserved for the rarest dynasties. Yet, as the Oklahoma City Thunder blaze through the opening stanza of the 2025/26 NBA campaign, that unforgiving summit looks more like their private domain than a battleground.
Relentless Thunder
Last season, OKC romped to the Larry O’Brien for the first time in history, reeling off 68 regular-season wins, before dispatching Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets, Anthony Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves, and finally, Tyrese Haliburton’s Pacers. This term, the Thunder have indeed been thunderous, storming their way to a stunning 21-1 start, including an ongoing 13-game winning streak. Their dominance seemingly knows no bounds, and online betting sites are in agreement.
The latest NBA lines at Bovada have the champs installed as a mightily short +150 frontrunner to go back-to-back and defend the championship trophy. And despite the lofty billing, there is absolutely no sign of complacency creeping in, just as with the Golden State Warriors. They became OKC’s latest victims in a 124-112 showcase headlined by reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 38-point masterclass. Statistically, SGA is an apex predator in this environment: 32.8 points per game, hitting at a .548 clip from the floor, orchestrating an offense humming at 122.3 PPG (third in the league), yet bolstered by a defense leading all comers at 107.0 opponent PPG.
If they reach the summit again, they’ll etch themselves among a select cadre of modern back-to-back champs. But what does that company look like? Only a handful of franchises have pulled off back-to-back champagne showers since the turn of the millennium. Let’s take a look at them.
Congratulations to 2025 NBA Champions the Oklahoma City Thunder! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/L1xUaRXR64
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) June 23, 2025
Los Angeles Lakers (2000-2002)
It’s been more than two decades, but the shadow of the early-2000s Lakers still looms impossibly large. Before Shaq and Kobe, the Lakers were a slumbering giant—years of disjointed playoff heartbreak, the ghosts of Magic Johnson long departed. Enter Phil Jackson, fresh off a second three-peat with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, and suddenly the pieces clicked into place.
In 2000, Jackson would lead LA to the Finals, but before the coach could punch the ticket to his seventh trip of the last decade, he had to rally his team through a nail-biting conference final against Portland. The Lakers were down double digits at the Staples Center in Game 7 before Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal unleashed one of the defining comebacks, ultimately triumphing 89-84 after 25 points from the Black Mamba.
With victory secured, the floodgates opened. Shaq averaged a jaw-dropping 38.0 points per Finals game, and the triangle offense bludgeoned Reggie Miller’s Pacers. The following year? Near-perfection. The Lakers went 15-1 in the postseason, sweeping the West without losing a single game before Allen Iverson—in that iconic step-over—could interrupt their buzz saw. Still, a 4-1 triumph over the 76ers saw LA defend its crown, but they weren’t finished there.
The Lakers would go on to complete a three-peat in 2002. The triumph secured coach Jackson’s third three-peat in 12 years, while simultaneously sealing Kobe and Shaq’s status as two of the greatest to ever do it.
Los Angeles Lakers (2009 & 2010)
Dynasties rarely revive themselves. After Shaq’s exit, the Lakers wandered—Kobe scoring in blizzards, the roster spinning its wheels. Then, in 2008, salvation arrived in the form of Pau Gasol. The Spaniard’s IQ and touch acted as a tuning fork: Kobe, aged and sharpened, rediscovered orchestration. Opponents faced a team equally adept at punishing in the paint or dancing from the perimeter.
In 2009, the Lakers set a clinical pace, toppling Orlando in five as Bryant seized his first Finals MVP as the unquestioned alpha. But true greatness is never easy. The next season, LA faced a blood feud—a Finals rematch with Boston, memories of 2008’s defeat raw in every huddle. The series went the distance with Game 7 turning into a slugfest, basketball at its most primal. Neither team shot 42 percent, bodies crashed, nerves shredded. But Gasol’s 18 rebounds and Bryant’s sheer willpower (23 points on a storm of misses) tipped the scales and sealed a second straight title.
Miami Heat (2012 & 2013)
Miami Heat redefined the league’s tectonics. The 2010 formation of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh via free agency provoked equal parts envy and derision. After a humbling Finals loss to Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks in 2011, Miami answered every critic emphatically over the two seasons that followed.
The 2012 title run saw LeBron obliterating Indiana and Boston en route to his first ring, punctuated by an ice-cold 28.6 PPG Finals average. But it was 2013 that tested the limits of destiny and human poise. Facing defeat in Game 6 of the Finals against the Spurs, Ray Allen’s epochal corner three changed history. Miami clawed back to win in overtime, before holding their nerve in Game 7 and authoring a modern classic.
Golden State Warriors (2017 & 2018)
If the Lakers’ first run was about physical inevitability, and Miami’s about tactical reinvention, then Golden State’s dynasty was about velocity—how fast a team can run away from the rest of the league. Loaded with two MVPs (Steph Curry and Kevin Durant), a Defensive Player of the Year (Draymond Green), and shooting in prodigious volume and accuracy, the Warriors didn’t just beat teams—they recalibrated the geometry of NBA defense.
In 2017, the Warriors went 16-1 through the postseason. Durant’s addition was the nuclear button; opponents were forced to choose whether to double him or attempt to cover the gravitational pull of Curry’s range, and either choice ended in despair. In 2018, Houston pushed them to seven, but Golden State’s depth, poise, and shooting flurries carried them over the line before a merciless dismantling of LeBron’s Cavaliers, setting Northern California’s finest on its way to a dynasty.
