A good century for championship-starved franchises continued getting even better on back-to-back nights last week, when the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights each won their first titles by closing out convincing five-game series wins over the Miami Heat (not starved after winning their third title in 2013) and Florida Panthers (still starving and without a title since their founding in 1993).
Both droughts were unique, albeit for entirely different reasons. The Nuggets, in their 56th season of existence, appeared in just one championship round prior to this season — the 1976 ABA Finals, where they fell to Julius Erving and the New York Nets weeks before the ABA merged with the NBA.
Denver’s championship drought from birth is the longest since the Philadelphia Phillies went 97 years prior to winning the World Series in 1980.
The @nuggets are the 2022-23 NBA Champions! pic.twitter.com/8Kb1HZIkaj
— NBA (@NBA) June 13, 2023
The Golden Knights, who won it all just six years after debuting as the NHL’s 31st franchise, were maybe just a little thirsty and in need of a carb boost, especially after reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season in 2017-18 and qualifying for the playoffs in four of their first five seasons.
Regardless of how long they had to wait to join it, the Nuggets and Golden Knights are now part of a large and regularly expanding club of championship teams that ended a long drought and/or won it all for the first time since the 2000 season.
Denver is the 34th team this century to end a title drought of at least 20 seasons while Vegas is the sixth expansion team to win a championship in fewer than 20 years.
The list of teams to snap a title drought of at least 20 years or win their first title in franchise history this century is so long I had to shrink the font to 10 to get it all on one page! pic.twitter.com/sMCIVqwTYm
— Jerry Beach (@JerryBeach73) June 19, 2023
And the club almost had additional members. Spare a thought today for the 2008 Arizona Cardinals, the 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks, the 2011 Texas Rangers, the 2016 Cleveland Indians (who became baseball’s longest-starved franchise by falling to the biggest drought-buster of all, the Chicago Cubs), the 2016 Atlanta Falcons, the 2019 San Francisco 49ers and the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals, all of whom were outs, minutes and/or a Game 7 win away from ending epic championship droughts before suffering agonizing defeats.
As the advertising slogan goes: Who’s next?
With the NBA and NHL having just begun their summer breaks and NFL teams still weeks away from reporting to training camp, we’ll focus today on 10 drought-busting candidates in Major League Baseball — and predict the next team to enjoy a cathartic championship — before looking at the NFL later in the week. All odds from DraftKings as of June 19.
Tampa Bay Rays +475 (never won, founded in 1998)
Only the Braves have shorter World Series odds than the Rays, who rank second in the majors in both OPS (.803) and ERA (3.49) and are on pace to win 110 games.
Texas Rangers +1300 (never won, founded in 1961)
Bruce Bochy’s steadying hand has provided the desired effect for the Rangers, who entered this year with six straight losing seasons but are on pace to win 100 games and the AL West even with Jacob deGrom done after six starts.
San Diego Padres +1800 (never won, founded in 1969)
The narrative is more enticing than the Padres, who have gone all-in to an admirable degree but haven’t been at .500 since May 11 and are 3 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the race for the third and final wild card spot.
