Twenty-five years. The sports world has produced countless indelible memories during the 21st century's opening quarter, and it would be a gargantuan task to conjure it all in one place.

To help sift through all of the dizzying heights, jaw-dropping feats, unforgettable players and teams, the Bleacher Report staff got together to pluck out the best of the past two-and-a-half decades in sports—because, hey, reminiscing is part of why we're all fans.

Today we present the 25 greatest franchises across the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL since January 1, 2000, the second of our six-part Quarter Century series.

For this ranking, we set out to establish which franchises enjoyed the most success over the entire period in question, not simply a single campaign. A mix of regular-season winning percentage, playoff and title-round appearances, championships and a sprinkling of subjectivity comprised the ranking formula.

You can find other installments of the series linked below, and be sure to check back through New Year's Day as we reveal Parts 4 through 6, which cover the most dominant sports towns and the most incredible moments of the last 25 years—all of which lead to a look-ahead at the stars of the next 25.

Part 1: 25 Most Influential Sports Figures of the Last Quarter Century

Part 3: 25 Biggest Sports Trades of the Last Quarter Century

25. Cleveland Cavaliers

Regular-Season Record: 968-1,039 (.482)

Postseason Appearances: 11

NBA Finals: five appearances, one title

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the lone team in the top 25 with a losing record, which might make them a controversial inclusion—particularly to the fans of the Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Braves, who narrowly missed the list with much better winning percentages.

But if [spoiler alert] the Kansas City Chiefs and Golden State Warriors can both crack the top 10 after being mostly terrible from 2000 to 2012, surely we can carve out a little room at No. 25 for these five-time Eastern Conference champions who were a train wreck immediately before, in between and directly after their two stints with LeBron James on the roster.

The "LeBron vs. Jordan" debate will never be truly resolved, but here's a wild pair of data points in LeBron's favor.

For the 11 seasons James was on his hometown Cavaliers, they were 218 games above .500 and won 21 postseason series.

In the other 14 seasons of the quarter century in question, they were 289 games below .500, and just last season won their first James-less postseason series since 1993.

Had the Akron Hammer stayed in Cleveland for his entire career, they'd most likely be at No. 1 on this list.

24. St. Louis Cardinals

Regular-Season Record: 2,179-1,766 (.552)

Postseason Appearances: 16

World Series: four appearances, two titles

The case for the St. Louis Cardinals was much less of a dominant peak and more of a constant relevance, posting a winning record in 23 out of 25 seasons.

They did at least tie for the best record in the majors on four occasions—2004, 2005, 2013 and 2015—won the NL Central 11 times and were at least 10 games above .500 in 18 of those 25 years. It's not like they were scraping by at 82-80 on a regular basis or anything.

But they were also just about indisputably the worst team to ever win a World Series, doing so in 2006 at the end of an 83-win campaign.

Those first 11 years of Albert Pujols' career sure were fun to watch, though.

"The Machine" was to baseball in the 2000s what Ken Griffey Jr. was in the 1990s and what Mike Trout was in the 2010s: A constant MVP candidate who made you want to watch that team as often as possible, even if you couldn't care less if they won or lost. (They won quite often with Pujols.)

23. Dallas Mavericks

Regular-Season Record: 1,193-824 (.591)

Postseason Appearances: 19

NBA Finals: three appearances, one title

Similar to MLB's Cardinals, the NBA's Dallas Mavericks just kind of never went away.

After entering the quarter century on a streak of 10 consecutive losing seasons, the Mavs reeled off 16 years in a row at .500 or better, missing the postseason just once during that stretch.

They only won the one title (2011) and did in 2007 become the Association's first No. 1 seed to suffer a first-round loss in a best-of-seven series against the No. 8 seed.

That lone title was kind of unforgettable, though, beating the seemingly invincible super team from Miami in its first of what would be four consecutive trips to the Finals.

And at .591, Dallas joins the much-higher-on-this-list San Antonio Spurs as the only two NBA teams that posted at least a .570 winning percentage.

As it turns out, going directly from the end of Dirk Nowitzki's career to the beginning of Luka Dončić's is a fine way to win a lot of games.

22. Houston Astros

Regular-Season Record: 2,029-1,917 (.514)

Postseason Appearances: 12

World Series: five appearances, two titles

It is truly painful to rank the Houston Astros among the best franchises in recent history.

Not only were they intentionally awful for three full seasons (going 162-324 from 2011-13) during a tank job for the ages, but they got busted for sign stealing in one of the biggest non-gambling/non-PEDs scandals in MLB history.

The Astros are the primary reason Major League Baseball instituted an anti-tanking lottery system that both makes it tougher to get the No. 1 pick and limits the number of consecutive years a team can draft in the lottery.

They are also the biggest reason that PitchCom (and its frequent malfunctions) is part of the game today.

Nevertheless, their combination of unabashed tanking and bashing trash cans worked, as they made it to seven consecutive ALCS (2017-23) and have played in five World Series, the latter of which puts them in a tie with the Yankees for the most over the past quarter century.

The Astros' case is buoyed by the fact that they were also solid from 2001 to '06—all hail the Killer B's—including making the first World Series appearance in franchise history in 2005. If their greatness was contained solely to the past decade and all the asterisks attached to it, they would've missed the cut.

21. Colorado Avalanche

Regular-Season Record: 985-693-55-163 (.577 points percentage)

Postseason Appearances: 16

Stanley Cups: two appearances, two titles

It's unfortunate for the Colorado Avalanche that this is a 25-year window and not a 30-year one, as they won their division every year from 1995 to 1999 and secured another Stanley Cup in 1996.

Even so, not too shabby of a quarter century for the Avs, who tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the fifth-most regular-season wins and won more Stanley Cups than any of the teams in the top four on that list.

They bookended the 25-year period quite well, winning it all in each of 2001 and 2022. That 2022 title was the first time in two decades that they even made it to the conference finals, though, let alone the Stanley Cup Finals, so it was a long time coming.

Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy were the HOF-bound stars back in the 2000s, but Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen have become quite the present-day trio of Avs.

20. San Francisco Giants

Regular-Season Record: 2,052-1,893 (.520)

Postseason Appearances: eight

World Series: four appearances, three titles

Hands down, the San Francisco Giants presented the biggest "Where the heck do we rank them?" conundrum.

The "Even-Year Giants" were quite the phenomenon, winning the World Series in each of 2010, 2012 and 2014—while failing to make the playoffs in any of the adjacent odd-numbered years.

In fact, those were three of just five times in the past 21 years that this team reached the postseason, finishing in third (or worse) in the five-team NL West a staggering 13 times in the past two decades.

The Giants became three-time champions almost in a Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner-fueled fugue state in the middle of two decades of otherwise mediocrity.

Heck, even the third World Series during that run was a mediocre year, winning 88 games and sneaking in as the No. 5 seed before beating an 89-win Royals team in the World Series.

Were it not for those Barry Bonds-led years from 2000 to '04—when they won at least 90 games each year and did make it to another Fall Classic (2002)—there would have been a strong case to exclude the G-Men.

Still, hats off to them. They are one of just 11 Big Four franchises—and one of only two in MLB, along with the Red Sox—with at least three titles in the past 25 years.

19. Chicago Blackhawks

Regular-Season Record: 866-777-55-198 (.523 points percentage)

Postseason Appearances: 11

Stanley Cups: three appearances, three titles

Similar to the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Blackhawks won championships in 2010, 2013 and 2015, but were otherwise nothing particularly special.

They at least did make the playoffs on an annual basis from 2009 to '17, making this much less of a whack-a-mole situation than what the Giants had around the same time.

In fact, Chicago's quarter century had a pretty clear bell curve, making the postseason just once in the first eight seasons and once more in the past seven seasons, eliminated in the conference quarterfinals in each of those appearances.

In between those low stretches, though, was a strong run with an overall record of 414-212-84 (.642 points percentage). And in the middle of that run was one heck of an apex in the abridged 2012-13 campaign, going 36-7-5 for an incredible .802 points percentage—the first team to post an .800 mark since the Montreal Canadiens in 1977-78.

With the Big Three of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith leading the way, they capped off that phenomenal year with one of their three Stanley Cups.

18. Indianapolis Colts

Regular-Season Record: 243-159-1 (.604)

Postseason Appearances: 16

Super Bowls: two appearances, one title

It has been tough sledding for the Indianapolis Colts in recent years, last winning the AFC South back in 2014 and going 70-76-1 overall since then. (Excluding the current season, which isn't going any better).

That's a far cry from the Peyton Manning-led Colts from 1999 to 2010—and briefly the Andrew Luck-led Colts from 2012 to '14—who were a "pencil 'em in for at least 10 wins" force in the AFC on an annual basis.

(Save for that successful "Suck for Luck" campaign in 2011, going 2-14 with Curtis Painter, Dan Orlovsky and Kerry Collins tag-teaming for a disastrous year of QB play.)

At 173-83 (.676), the Colts were dominant enough from 1999 to 2014 to become one of just four NFL teams with at least a .600 regular-season winning percentage dating back to 1999.

However, with the exception of the end of the 2006 campaign—when they improbably rallied from a 21-3 deficit in the AFC Championship against the Patriots before toppling the Bears in the Super Bowl—early exits were a theme for the Colts, otherwise going 10-15 in the postseason.

They still made the cut with some room to spare, but that kept them from even sniffing the top 10.

17. Green Bay Packers

Regular-Season Record: 248-153-2 (.618)

Postseason Appearances: 17

Super Bowls: one appearance, one title

Marginally better than the Colts in terms of both winning percentage and playoff berths, the Green Bay Packers went from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers and never really blinked, posting just two losing records from 1992 to 2016. (Thus far, the transition from Rodgers to Jordan Love hasn't been too shabby, either.)

In fact, at .618 and 17, respectively, Green Bay is alone in first place among NFC teams over the past quarter century, edging out both the Eagles (.581 and 16) and Seahawks (.567 and 16) in both departments.

Just the one Super Bowl appearance, though, which is hard to explain and even harder to overlook.

As great as they've been during the regular season, they've posted an overall record of 15-16 in the postseason, ousted in the wild-card round four times, divisional round seven times and NFC Championship Game five times.

Three times (2011, 2020 and 2021), they earned the NFC's No. 1 seed, only to go a combined 1-3 in those playoffs.

Nevertheless, the Packers have been so consistently solid in the NFC North that they get to wear the crown of only team in our top 25 that didn't play in multiple championship rounds.

16. Detroit Red Wings

Regular-Season Record: 982-653-50-212 (.523 points percentage)

Postseason Appearances: 16

Stanley Cups: three appearances, two titles

It has been a rough past decade for the octopus-chucking faithful in Michigan, as the Detroit Red Wings last averaged at least one point per game played back in 2015-16.

Before the Red Wings began to crater, though, they had made the playoffs 25 consecutive times, including winning Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998 that—unfortunately for their ranking on this list—weren't part of the past quarter century.

Not only did they consistently make the playoffs, but they also won the Presidents' Trophy (most regular-season points) four times between 2002 and '08, eclipsing the century mark in 12 consecutive years.

Nicklas Lidström was the biggest/longest-tenured contributor of them all, playing for 20 seasons in Detroit and making the playoffs in each and every year. He was the star defenseman when Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman were the attacking stars for the first decade-plus of that 25-year run, and Lidström was still there for a while after that torch was passed to Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

15. Boston Bruins

Regular-Season Record: 1,020-601-59-216 (.610 points percentage)

Postseason Appearances: 18

Stanley Cups: three appearances, one title

The aforementioned .802 mark the Blackhawks put up in 2012-13 was unrivaled for a decade, until the Bruins' preposterous 2022-23 season of 65 wins and an .823 points percentage.

At 135 points, it was the highest-scoring regular season in NHL history, anchored by 61 goals and 52 assists by David Pastrňák and the proficient goalie tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.

Some lot of good it did them in the playoffs, though. The Bruins were eliminated in the first round by the No. 8 seed Florida Panthers, which has been a surprisingly common fate in the NHL. The Presidents' Trophy winner has been immediately eliminated in six of the past 19 seasons, with only three instances of the highest-scoring team reaching the Final.

But the Bruins did make the Stanley Cup Final in each of 2011, 2013 and 2019, winning it all in 2011 to end a drought of nearly four decades.

Spoiler alert: Hope you don't hate Boston/New England sports too much, because the Bruins have been the least successful of those franchises. Just a ridiculous run across all four leagues by the teams in Massachusetts.

14. Los Angeles Dodgers

Regular-Season Record: 2,239-1,709 (.567)

Postseason Appearances: 16

World Series: four appearances, two titles

At long last, the Los Angeles Dodgers won another World Series at the end of a full season, doing so in 2024 for the first time since 1988.

They've been outstanding from April to September for a while now, posting at least a .560 winning percentage in 12 consecutive years and suffering just two losing seasons in the past 25.

However, the unceremoniously early exits from postseasons played with fans in the stands was turning into a full-blown thing, routinely winning 100-plus games only to lose in the NLDS/NLCS to a team that would've needed another month to hit that mark.

With 98 wins and a shiny new Shohei Ohtani, though, they won the eighth World Series in franchise history.

It's just a shame Clayton Kershaw wasn't a part of it. He was on the bench with an injury cheering them on, but it would've been great to see him on the mound in that series against the Yankees, given all the heavy lifting he did for this franchise over the past 17 years.

Now that they've broken the seal, let's see if the Dodgers can become the first back-to-back champions since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998 to 2000.

13. Boston Celtics

Regular-Season Record: 1,142-871 (.567)

Postseason Appearances: 20

NBA Finals: four appearances, two titles

We go straight from the reigning MLB champ to the reigning NBA champ, as the 2023-24 Celtics mercifully ended their streak of 14 playoff appearances (in 15 years) without winning a title.

The quarter century started out rough—Remember the failed Rick Pitino experiment?—which combined with just the two titles made it tough to justify putting the Celtics in the top 10.

However, Boston has been a title threat in darn near every year dating back to 2007-08, when the Big Three of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett first joined forces.

Pierce was the O.G., though; the one who recruited Allen and Garnett to join him, like Dwyane Wade would do with LeBron James and Chris Bosh in Miami a few years later. And in his 15 seasons with the Celtics, the 10-time All-Star blew right past Larry Bird in the franchise record book for career points and steals.

The overall tally of 20 postseason appearances puts the C's in a tie with the New York Yankees and the San Antonio Spurs for the most among any franchise.

12. Baltimore Ravens

Regular-Season Record: 240-163 (.596)

Postseason Appearances: 15

Super Bowls: two appearances, two titles

We can argue about whether Joe Flacco is elite, but there's no question the Ravens defense has been elite for a long time, ranking top-six in points allowed in 17 of the past 25 seasons.

It's been a while since any of Ray Lewis, Ed Reed or Terrell "Ball So Hard University" Suggs took the field in Baltimore, but the Ravens just keep churning out a contender year in and year out, mostly due to their defensive excellence.

Of course, they do finally have one heck of a quarterback in Lamar Jackson, who has spent the past five-plus seasons pushing an offense to heights that never felt attainable under the likes of Flacco and Kyle Boller.

Ravens football used to be all about establishing the run on offense and breaking the opposition's back on defense. Now, they can win shootouts and are starting to loudly knock on the door of a third Super Bowl.

11. New York Yankees

Regular-Season Record: 2,286-1,658 (.580)

Postseason Appearances: 20

World Series: five appearances, two titles

By Yankees standards, one World Series title in the span from 2001 to '24 is a colossal embarrassment, and it would feel wrong to label them as a top-10 Big Four franchise in light of that.

But if you can temporarily forget that the Bronx Bombers once won 16 championships in the span of 27 years and instead stack them up against other current teams as opposed to their gilded past, they've been remarkably good.

Though they've only converted two appearances into World Series titles, the fact that they've made the postseason 20 times in the past 25 years is incredible. That puts them in a tie with the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs for the most among all Big Four franchises.

On the one hand, yes, the Yankees have benefited for a long time from the lack of a salary cap in baseball. Not hard to argue that missing the postseason 20 percent of the time is borderline unforgivable here.

On the other hand, the average number of postseason spots awarded in MLB over the past 25 years was only 9.5, compared to 16 every year in the NBA. The fact that the Yankees have made the playoffs four more times since 2000 than any other MLB team was almost enough to push them into the top 10 after all.

10. Pittsburgh Steelers

Regular-Season Record: 251-149-3 (.628)

Postseason Appearances: 15

Super Bowls: three appearances, two titles

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the lone team in our top 10 without at least three championships, but they've made up for it by simply refusing to take a season off in more than two decades.

There have been a few 8-8 campaigns along the way, but you have to go all the way back to 2003 to find the last time the Black and Gold had a losing record. And after that rare 6-10 season, they took some kid from Miami (Ohio) by the name of Ben Roethlisberger with the 11th overall pick, instantly reemerged as a top contender with a 15-1 mark the following year and haven't looked back since.

Though "Big Ben" won two Super Bowls and nearly a third, the Steelers were at their best when the defense was on point. They led the NFL in either points allowed or total yards allowed (occasionally both) seven times from 2001 to 2012. They've been in a constant state of employing at least one of the best linebackers in the business, and had quite a run while Troy Polamalu was in his prime.

They haven't been nearly as strong as that on defense in recent years, which is largely why they haven't won a playoff game since 2016 and haven't been in a Super Bowl since 2010.

Nevertheless, they always seem to be in the mix, with 10 divisional crowns—made more impressive by the reminder that they have to deal with our No. 12 Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North—and five other wild-card berths.

9. Tampa Bay Lightning

Regular-Season Record: 951-723-50-172 (.560)

Postseason Appearances: 15

Stanley Cups: five appearances, three titles

Imagine going back in time 22 years and projecting that the Tampa Bay Lightning would land at No. 9 on this list.

Ninth-worst franchise was far more likely at that point in time.

Through the 2001-02 season, it had been a decade of distress for this expansion franchise. The Lightning suffered nearly twice as many losses as wins, reaching the playoffs just once as a No. 8 seed in 1996 before getting immediately eliminated.

That all started to change when the Big Three of Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards blossomed into a force in 2002-03 and further into a Stanley Cup champion in 2003-04.

The Lightning did proceed to crash and burn again in 2007, but what fortuitous timing for a two-year tank job, adding Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman in back-to-back years at/near the top of the draft.

It took a little while to fill out the rest of the roster again around those two stars, but that duo of will-eventually-be Hall of Famers anchored the Lightning for a decade and a half as Tampa Bay became an annual Stanley Cup contender. The team won it all in both 2020 and 2021 and at least reached the Eastern Conference Final seven times in the span of 12 years.

As it turns out, hockey in Florida can work quite well.

8. Pittsburgh Penguins

Regular-Season Record: 985-686-39-185 (.579)

Postseason Appearances: 18

Stanley Cups: four appearances, three titles

When Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang first played in a game together on Oct. 18, 2006, Borat was still two weeks away from being released in theaters in America.

Suffice it to say, the Penguins have had "great success" with the "very nice" trio that is incredibly still playing together, more than 18 years later.

A fun fact about the Pittsburgh Penguins ending up as the highest-ranked NHL franchise on this list is that they haven't won the Presidents' Trophy since 1993 and have been the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference just once in the past quarter century (2013).

However, no NHL team has made the playoffs more times than the Penguins, nor has any team won more Stanley Cups, as they have been—much like the gridiron's Steelers just down the road—perpetually relevant.

The past couple of seasons haven't been as great, but that 2006-07 campaign was the beginning of a run of 16 consecutive years making the playoffs, including back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017. Those were the first two seasons in which Phil Kessel was also a huge piece of the puzzle, accounting for 45 points between those two postseasons while Crosby and Malkin each went for 46.

The Penguins also made back-to-back Cup Finals in 2008 and 2009, splitting those consecutive showdowns with the Detroit Red Wings.

Pittsburgh might have even cracked the top five here if it hadn't been so bad toward the end of Mario Lemieux's career. Then again, they wouldn't have had as many balls in the Sidney Crosby lottery if they hadn't been a mess from 2001 to '04, so it was for the best.

7. Kansas City Chiefs

Regular-Season Record: 226-177 (.561)

Postseason Appearances: 13

Super Bowls: four appearances, three titles

For the most recent quarter of the past quarter century, the Kansas City Chiefs have been indisputably the most successful franchise.

In the six completed seasons since handing the reins to Patrick Mahomes, they've won three Super Bowls, played in a fourth and lost in overtime of the AFC Championship Game in the other two years.

While the NBA has produced six different champions, the Chiefs either won or almost won six titles in a row.

As such, there might be some head scratching over the fact that this recent juggernaut only landed at No. 7.

However, the pre-Andy Reid years from 1999 to 2012 still counted, and were decidedly not great.

Kansas City went a combined 98-126 during those 14 seasons, plus an 0-3 record in the postseason. In fact, before Reid led them to a win in the wild-card round in 2015, the Chiefs had lost eight consecutive postseason games, dating back to the 1993 AFC Championship against the Buffalo Bills.

Priest Holmes' three healthy seasons (2001-03) with the Chiefs were a whole heck of a lot of fun to watch, but it was otherwise rough sledding—particularly in the 2007-12 timeframe, when Herm Edwards, Todd Haley and Romeo Crennel each had painful, brief stints as head coach.

Since scooping up The Walrus after the Eagles sent him packing, though, they've reeled off 12 consecutive winning seasons, including the current one with its 9-0 start.

Quite the 180 from annual doormat to AFC West juggernaut.

6. Golden State Warriors

Regular-Season Record: 1,021-986 (.509)

Postseason Appearances: 10

NBA Finals: six appearances, four titles

For ranking purposes, the Golden State Warriors are essentially the NBA's version of the Kansas City Chiefs: a team whose ranking probably initially feels too low until you remember how bad that team was for the first half of the data set.

Once they hired Steve Kerr and the then-young nucleus of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green began to hit its stride, it was pretty much curtains for the rest of the NBA.

Winning 73 games in 2015-16 before adding Kevin Durant for three years was just unfair. GSW went to five consecutive Finals, winning four titles in eight years. Throughout the Big Four sports, there are only five franchises in this quarter century that won four titles, but only the Warriors can boast four in the span of eight years.

From 1999-00 through 2011-12, though, the Warriors went a combined 404-646, making the postseason just once as a No. 8 seed in 2007.

Throw in the disastrous 2019-20 campaign which both Durant and Thompson missed entirely while Curry played in just five games and the Warriors have had 12 losing seasons against just 13 winning seasons out of the past 25.

In fact, aside from the Cleveland Cavaliers at No. 25 on this list—who only made the cut because of that miracle championship over the 73-win Warriors—Golden State has the worst overall winning percentage on this list.

At least their peak was high enough and long enough, though, joining the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and New England Patriots as the only teams to play in at least six championships rounds.

5. Boston Red Sox

Regular-Season Record: 2,145-1,802 (.543)

Postseason Appearances: 11

World Series: four appearances, four titles

By most of the data points, having the Red Sox at No. 5 and the Yankees not quite in the top 10 might seem a bit ludicrous.

New York has won 141 more regular-season games, 13 AL East titles to Boston's five and has led the head-to-head regular-season series by a margin of 238-203.

But let's talk postseason, where the Yankees only have themselves to blame for landing behind the Red Sox.

The loathed rivals have met four times in the postseason in the past quarter century, with Boston winning three of them.

The Yankees had the first laugh in 2003, courtesy of Aaron Boone's walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield in Game 7 of the ALCS. But it was the following year's pennant-deciding series where real history was made, with Boston rallying from that 3-0 deficit in the 2004 ALCS en route to its curse-breaking World Series title.

And once that curse was broken, the Red Sox added three more titles in 2007, 2013 and 2018—the latter beginning with an ALDS victory over the Yankees that included a 16-1 shellacking of New York in New York.

The aforementioned even-year Giants are the only other MLB franchise with at least three World Series titles in the past 25 years. Even though the Red Sox haven't been consistently dominant, standing apart from the MLB crowd in that regard was a major point of consideration for this top-five ranking.

4. Miami Heat

Regular-Season Record: 1,125-890 (.558)

Postseason Appearances: 19

NBA Finals: seven appearances, three titles

Miami was destined for at least a spot in the top 25 just from the four years it had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh together.

After "The Decision," those three stars reeled off four consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals, going a combined 224-88 during the regular season and 48-16 through the Eastern Conference portions of the postseason.

They did only win two of the four titles, though, which was a bit of a letdown after the whole "not one, not two, not three..." introductory party.

However, the Heat have been much more than just that single presidential term's worth of a superteam.

They also won a title in 2006 in what was Shaquille O'Neal's final season as a truly unstoppable force in the paint. And the Jimmy Butler/Bigface Coffee era dating back to "The Bubble" has produced two more Finals appearances.

All told, Miami has more Finals appearances (seven) in the past 25 years than it has years that didn't at least result in a spot in the postseason (six). The Heat have also won their division more times (13) than not—though, it hasn't hurt sharing a division with the Hawks, Wizards, Magic and Hornets/Bobcats.

If only they could have commissioned a Dwyane Wade statue that actually looks like Dwyane Wade...

3. San Antonio Spurs

Regular-Season Record: 1,278-735 (.635)

Postseason Appearances: 20

NBA Finals: five appearances, four titles

The past five-plus seasons have been rough for Gregg Popovich and the Spurs, but goodness gracious were the previous 20 (and then some) special. (And things are looking up with Victor Wembanyama already a dominant force.)

Even with the past half-decade of sub-.500, postseason-less hoops factored in, San Antonio is laughably at the head of the NBA class in terms of regular-season winning percentage. The next-closest team is Dallas at .591, followed by Boston at .567.

Sitting at .635 is almost nonsensical.

Consider this: The Spurs topped out at 67-15 in 2015-16, but they literally could have gone 0-82 that season and would still be 18 wins clear of the Mavericks for first place in total wins.

And, again, that's in spite of recent struggles. Take out the 143-246 record since the beginning of 2019-20 and the Spurs improve to 1,135-489, or a .699 winning percentage.

Madness.

We simply had to put the two teams with at least six championships in the top two spots, but the Spurs were some kind of relentless force, earning a top-three seed in the Western Conference 15 times in the span of 17 years.

What a luxury it was to give a genius in Popovich stars like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker for almost the entirety of that run—and then adding Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge to the party right as those three already Hall of Famers were reaching the end of the line.

2. Los Angeles Lakers

Regular-Season Record: 1,110-903 (.551)

Postseason Appearances: 17

NBA Finals: eight appearances, six titles

To reiterate how much better than everyone else the Spurs were during the regular season, they won 1,278 games to the Lakers' 1,110.

That's a difference of more than two full seasons' worth of games.

For all their regular-season success, though, the Spurs can't quite hold a candle to the Lakers playing in eight and winning six NBA Finals.

Basically, when it mattered most, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal/Pau Gasol got the job done, winning four out of the five postseason series against the Spurs that took place with Phil Jackson at the helm.

Save for the title that LeBron James and Anthony Davis won in The Bubble in 2020, the vast majority of the Lakers' past-25-years greatness took place during that 2000-11 window with five championships and two other Finals appearances.

Those Kobe/Shaq Lakers at the beginning of the 2000s were a certified powerhouse, particularly the 2000-01 team that went 15-1 in the postseason. They made the Lakers the most recent Big Four franchise to win at least three consecutive championships.

Then, after the great schism in 2004 with O'Neal going to Miami, Bryant and Jackson reascended the mountain for another incredible run from 2007 to '11 of four consecutive seasons with 57-plus wins, two titles and a narrow miss at a third.

When the Lakers finally began to fade in 2011, the Miami Heat took over for four years. Then it was the Warriors' turn, as the NBA passed the torch from one mini-dynasty to another for two decades—with the Spurs occasionally snagging a crown along the way.

1. New England Patriots

Regular-Season Record: 274-129 (.680)

Postseason Appearances: 18

Super Bowls: nine appearances, six titles

Did you really expect to find anyone else at No. 1?

Even with Eli Manning somehow preventing two Super Bowl rings from being added to Tom Brady's collection, the New England Patriots tied the Los Angeles Lakers for the most titles in the past 25 years. They played for the most championships by making nine Super Bowls, and their regular season winning percentage of .680 makes even the San Antonio Spurs pale in comparison.

That's with the pre-Brady and post-Brady portions of the quarter century not amounting to anything good, too. They went 5-11 in 2000 and 4-13 last season, but averaged 12.2 wins per season from 2001-19 for a .763 regular-season winning percentage.

Even during the postseason—you know, when they were theoretically facing the best of the best and not fattening up that winning percentage against teams that never had any hope of winning the AFC East for the better part of two decades—they went 30-11 (.732) with Brady under center.

There were other stars, of course. Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Vince Wilfork and Tedy Bruschi were phenomenal weapons on defense. Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman and, for a brief window, Randy Moss were top-notch targets. Matt Light, Logan Mankins and several other Pro Bowl linemen kept Brady's pocket clean. And we can't forget Bill Belichick as the mastermind behind it all.

For two decades, though, it felt like the rest of the NFL was trying and constantly failing to beat Brady.