2001 NBA Finals

Team Coach Wins Los Angeles Lakers Phil Jackson 4 Philadelphia 76ers Larry Brown 1
Dates	June 6–15
MVP	Shaquille O'Neal (Los Angeles Lakers)
Hall of Famers	Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal (2016) Kobe Bryant (2020) 76ers: Dikembe Mutombo (2015) Allen Iverson (2016) Coaches: Larry Brown (2002) Phil Jackson (2007) Officials: Dick Bavetta (2015) Hugh Evans (2022)
Eastern Finals	76ers defeated Bucks, 4–3
Western Finals	Lakers defeated Spurs, 4–0

The 2001 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2000–01 season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers took on the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers for the championship, with the Lakers holding home-court advantage in a best-of-seven format.

After losing the first game at home, the Lakers won the next four games to clinch their second consecutive title and 13th overall. Shaquille O'Neal of the Lakers was named the Most Valuable Player of the series for the second consecutive year.

By the end of the series, the 2000–01 Lakers held the record for the best postseason record with 15–1. It was later surpassed after the NBA extended the first round series to a best-of-seven series by the 2016–17 Golden State Warriors.^[1]

Background

The Los Angeles Lakers entered the 2000–01 NBA season as the defending NBA champions. The club lost a few players to free agency, but they signed veteran players like Isaiah Rider and Horace Grant. The Lakers began the season struggling on and off the court, as they were losing games at the beginning with the Shaq–Kobe feud. Injuries also riddled the team as they struggled through the season. But by April 1, 2001, the Lakers last loss was to the New York Knicks and they never looked back as the team closed out the season on an eight-game winning streak, thus finishing the season 56-26 and closing out as the number 2 seed in the West behind the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers began the 2001 NBA Playoffs versus the team against whom they played the previous year in the Western Conference finals, the Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers were a team that struggled throughout the season but battled back to claim the 7th seed. The series wasn't close, as the Lakers swept the Trail Blazers by double digits in all three games. In the semifinals the Lakers took on the Sacramento Kings, a team who had also given the Lakers a tough series the previous season, but the Lakers took two close games at home and went to Sacramento to finish the Kings off with a 4–0 sweep as well. In the conference finals the Lakers went up against the number 1 seed San Antonio Spurs, who were expected to be more competitive than the Lakers' previous opponents. But the Lakers took games 1 and 2 in San Antonio, and then blew them out in games 3 and 4 in Los Angeles in another complete sweep as they became the second team in NBA history to sweep the conference playoffs at 11–0, the 1988-1989 Los Angeles Lakers being the first.

But the Lakers met a snag on their quest to the first NBA sweep in playoff history as they went up against Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers, seeded number 1 in the Eastern Conference, had just come out of two straight seven-game series against the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks. During the first game, the trio of Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo and Eric Snow, coming hot off a long Eastern Conference championship road, beat the Lakers in overtime, showcasing their endurance.

The Lakers then took Game 2. Afterwards, Kobe Bryant was quoted as saying he was coming to Philadelphia to cut their hearts out.^[2] The Sixers dropped all three games in Philadelphia, giving the Lakers their second straight championship.

2001 NBA Finals rosters

Philadelphia 76ers

2000–01 Philadelphia 76ers roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB From G 19 Bell, Raja 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 204 lb (93 kg) FIU G/F 23 Buford, Rodney 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 189 lb (86 kg) Creighton G — Claxton, Speedy  5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 166 lb (75 kg) Hofstra C 52 Geiger, Matt 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 243 lb (110 kg) Georgia Tech F/C 40 Hill, Tyrone 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 240 lb (109 kg) Xavier G 3 Iverson, Allen 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Georgetown F 33 Jones, Jumaine 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 218 lb (99 kg) Georgia F 9 Lynch, George 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 218 lb (99 kg) North Carolina C 50 MacCulloch, Todd 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 280 lb (127 kg) Washington G 8 McKie, Aaron 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 209 lb (95 kg) Temple F 7 McLeod, Roshown 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 221 lb (100 kg) Duke C 55 Mutombo, Dikembe 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) 245 lb (111 kg) Georgetown G 5 Ollie, Kevin 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Connecticut G 4 Sánchez, Pepe 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Temple G 20 Snow, Eric 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) Michigan State	Head coach Larry Brown (North Carolina) Assistant coach(es) Randy Ayers (Miami (OH)) John Kuester (North Carolina) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured Roster Last transaction: {{{access-date}}}

Series summary

Player statistics

Los Angeles Lakers

Philadelphia 76ers

Broadcasting

The 2001 NBA Finals was aired in the United States on NBC, with Marv Albert and Doug Collins on play-by-play and color commentary respectively. Albert, who last worked the Finals for NBC Sports in 1997, had been rehired by the network in 1999, two years after a sex scandal led to his dismissal. Albert also began working for TNT during this period, a role he continued until 2021. Collins departed NBC following the series to serve as head coach of the Washington Wizards.

Ahmad Rashad served as the studio host in place of Hannah Storm, who took a maternity leave during the finals. Kevin Johnson and P. J. Carlesimo served as studio analysts, while Lewis Johnson and Jim Gray served as sideline reporters.

Aftermath

The Lakers won their third straight championship in a four-game sweep of the New Jersey Nets the following year.

Also for the Lakers, their 15–1 postseason record was the best in NBA history. This record would later be broken throughout the 2017 NBA playoffs by the Golden State Warriors, who had a 16–1 record en route to their 2017 NBA Championship.^[1] By this point, the first round series became a best-of-seven series, which began in 2003.

As of the 2022–23 season, the series remains the 76ers’ last NBA Finals appearance. The Sixers would win only 43 games in the 2001-02 NBA season, as injuries were the story of their season. Nevertheless, they made the playoffs as the sixth seed, but were defeated by the Boston Celtics in five games. The Celtics themselves came within two games of returning to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1987, but were ousted by the upstart Nets, who made the NBA Finals for the first time, denying a possible Celtics-Lakers final. As for the Sixers, they would never challenge for the title again in the Allen Iverson era, with the team reaching the playoffs only twice for the next four years, winning only one series.

Larry Brown later coached the Detroit Pistons to their third championship in the 2004 NBA Finals, defeating the Lakers 4–1.

References

External links

• "Official website". NBA.com. Archived from the original on March 31, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• ""Take Two for Tinseltown"". NBA.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) entry about Finals at NBA Encyclopedia
• 2001 NBA Finals at basketball-reference.com