Best NBA Team Tournament Bracket!

It's around this time of year, when March Madness is happening, that people become obsessed with brackets. I have to admit, I'm one of those people. As a result, I thought it would be fun to have a simulated tournament to come up with the best team in NBA history!

In coming up with the teams for this bracket, I wanted to make it close (though it ended up being not really that close) to how teams are selected for the NCAA tournament. First, I had to come up with the automatic bids. For this, I debated with myself between either having all the teams that have won a championship being in the tournament, or the best team in each team's history. In the end, I decided to go with the latter, just because I thought it would be fun to have every single team currently in the league represented. Kind of like the MLB All-Star game. Also, the number of automatic bids via this method was closer to the number in the actual NCAA tournament. 30 NBA teams meant 30 automatic bids. For each team, the best team was determined by the one that won a championship. If multiple teams won the championship in a franchise's history, the one with the most wins that season was picked. If a franchise never won a championship, I picked the team that had the most wins.

For the at-large bids, I just decided to go with the teams that did win the championship. Not included the ones that already got the automatic bid, that left me with 46 automatic bid teams. Based on winning percentage, I cut that down to 35 teams, leaving 65 teams for the tournament. I know, there's 68 teams, but to be honest, I just don't feel it necessary to add in an extra 3 teams.

With the 65 teams selected, I ordered them by winning percentage, seeded them, and put them into four different regions, or in this case, groups, like they would be if they were teams playing in the NCAA tournament.

Some fun facts? The team that's most represented in this tournament are the Lakers, with 13 different teams, followed by the Celtics with 12. I think the most represented year are 2004 (Indiana, Memphis, and Minnesota) and 2009 (Cleveland, the Lakers, and Denver). Of course, this being a Sonics blog, I feel it good to note that under this format, the 1979 Championship team is the team's only representative, and they're a 14th seed at that.

So the question is, how do I pick the winner? I'm going to use the game simulator by whatifsports.com. Like the NCAA Tournament, only one game will be played, so the best team may not always win.

Without further ado, here are the match-ups:

Group 1
1. 1996 Chicago Bulls vs. 16. 1978 Washington Bullets/2010 Charlotte Bobcats
8. 1996 Orlando Magic vs. 9. 1980 LA Lakers
4. 1965 Boston Celtics vs. 13. 1953 Minneapolis Lakers
5. 2006 Detroit Pistons vs. 12. 2010 LA Lakers
3. 2009 Cleveland  Cavaliers vs. 14. 2006 Miami Heat
6. 1998 Chicago Bulls vs. 11. 2004 Minnesota Timberwolves
2. 1971 Milwaukee Bucks vs. 15. 1956 Philadelphia Warriors
7. 1950 Minneapolis Lakers vs. 10. 1994 Houston Rockets

Group 2
1. 1972 LA Lakers vs. 16. 1958 St. Louis Hawks
8. 1970 New York Knicks vs. 9. 2003 San Antonio Spurs
4. 1997 Utah Jazz vs. 2008 New Orleans Hornets
5. 1989 Detroit Pistons vs. 12. 1993 Chicago Bulls
3. 2008 Boston Celtics vs. 14. 2002 New Jersey Nets
6. 1988 LA Lakers vs. 11. 2002 LA Lakers
2. 2000 LA Lakers vs. 15. 2004 Memphis Grizzlies
7. 1962 Boston vs. 10. 2005 San Antonio Spurs

Group 3
1. 1997 Chicago Bulls vs. 16. 2001 Toronto Raptors
8. 1964 Boston Celtics vs. 9. 1963 Boston Celtics
4. 1960 Boston Celtics vs. 13. 1974 Boston Celtics
5. 1993 Phoenix Suns vs. 12. 1982 LA Lakers
3. 1983 Philadelphia 76ers vs. 14. 1979 Seattle SuperSonics
6. 1985 LA Lakers vs. 11. 2007 San Antonio Spurs
2. 1992 Chicago Bulls vs. 15. 1951 Rochester Royals
7. 2004 Indiana Pacers vs. 10. 1990 Detroit Pistons

Group 4
1. 1967 Philadelphia 76ers vs. 16. 1977 Portland Trail Blazers
8. 1999 San Antonio Spurs vs. 9. 1959 Boston Celtics
4. 2009 LA Lakers vs. 13. 2001 LA Lakers
5. 1981 Boston Celtics vs. 12. 1973 New York Knicks
3. 1987 LA Lakers vs. 14. 2009 Denver Nuggets
6. 1984 Boston Celtics vs. 11. 2011 Dallas Mavericks
2. 1986 Boston Celtics vs. 15. 1975 Buffalo Braves
7. 1991 Chicago Bulls vs. 10. 1961 Boston Celtics