McCaw is the seventh player to win a championship during each of his first three years in the league. Of those 39 players, only three have won a championship, switched teams, and immediately won another championship the next season: McCaw, Steve Kerr (who won with the Bulls in 1998 and the Spurs in 1999, and, as you may have heard, is now the coach of the Warriors) and a player from the 1950s named Pep Saul, who did it with the Rochester Royals and Minneapolis Lakers. Basketball-Reference had it at 32 in 2011 with the additions of Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, LeBron James, Ray Allen, Mike Miller, James Jones, and, of course, McCaw, it’s now at 39. The list of players to win titles with multiple teams is already shorter than you’d probably think. By jumping from the Warriors to the Raptors and continuing to win, McCaw joins some even more exclusive clubs. (Sorry, Steph!) But there have been plenty of dynasties in league history. This might sound ridiculous, but the facts don’t lie: Nobody in league history has ever done what McCaw just did.įor one, he’s the first player to win three championships in a row since Shaq, Kobe, and the Lakers did from 2000 to 2002. McCaw’s accomplishment, winning three titles in his first three years in the league, should earn him a spot in the pantheon of NBA greats. McCaw is the NBA’s King Midas, but without the whole dying-of-starvation-due-to-all-his-food-turning-to-gold thing. “It isn’t supposed to be like this every year,” McCaw said, “but this is all I really know.” He picked Toronto, and the seemingly unbeatable Warriors were felled by McCaw’s Raptors, while he sat on the bench. McCaw won his first two championships with the Warriors, in 20, before a contentious contract dispute sent him looking for a new team. And he’s been in the league for only three years. See, this isn’t McCaw’s first NBA championship: It’s his third. However, I will make no such joke about Patrick McCaw, who averaged 0.8 points, 0.5 assists, and zero rebounds in the Finals.
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