It is to no surprise that, yet another super team has been birthed in the NBA, with the Brooklyn Nets receiving James Harden a few games into the season. Who can even keep count of the amount of these teams anymore? Over the last decade and a half, super teams have been created and popularized all around the league. The intent being to win a championship during a season, or over the course of multiple seasons, then later go into a rebuilding phase. 

When you think of a super team that has dominated the league in recent years, most peoples’ first thought is the 2015-18 Golden State Warriors. During that time span, the league was practically run by them and the Cleveland Cavilers, who played each other in four back-to-back championships. This trend would later be broken by the single-season super team of the Toronto Raptors, in 2019. 

Looking at it through an objective lens, a super team can be defined simply. According to an article by The Pudding, a super team is a team with three or more all-stars/hall of fame contenders that are in their prime.  

While there isn’t a definite first super team, as they have been around throughout almost all of the NBA’s existence, the first modern take on the super team can be credited to the 2008 Boston Celtics. With the addition of Kevin Garnet and Ray Allen to their already stacked line up of Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce, the team was set to dominate the league. They finished with a 66-16 record and yet another championship title for the franchise, that being the Celtics’ seventeenth. 

As previously stated, the NBA is crawling with these sorts of roosters, as many franchises were forced to conform to the modern-day formula by teams such as the 2011-14 Heat and 2015-18 Cavileers. When looking at the list of teams who have made back-to-back appearances in the title game, it does not seem likely that the trend of super teams will be slowing down anytime soon.