Phil Watson

The Atlanta Hawks have already joined select company by reaching the conference finals as a fifth seed. The roll call will get shorter if they win the Eastern Conference to reach the NBA Finals. But no No. 5 seed has ever hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy as NBA champions.

The Brooklyn Nets fell short of their first NBA championship behind a talented but fragile Big Three that managed to play just 14 games together across the regular season and playoffs. Now the Nets have big decisions to make this summer regarding Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden.

The last time the NASCAR Cup Series visited Nashville, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was a one-time Cup champion. The series returns to the Music City after a 37-year absence, but not at the Fairgrounds Speedway.

LeBron James did not create the first superteam when he joined forces with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade in Miami. But he gets blamed for the trend because it didn't happen the old-fashioned way, by the bounce of a ping pong ball or a general manager swapping players like Pokemon cards.

Nikola Jokić was almost an afterthought, a second-round draft-and-stash pick from Serbia in 2014. He completed a first-of-its-kind climb from that origin to NBA MVP.

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer has been rumored to be on the hot seat for much of the season, needing a strong playoff run to remain. After a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, it might be time to start examining potential successors.

Injuries in the NBA Playoffs have altered the destinies of players and franchises. These are the five most significant playoff injuries in NBA history.

George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers were the first NBA dynasty in the early 1950s. The evolution of the NBA Playoffs and its various formats is a long, strange trip indeed.

Michael Jordan is well-known for winning six NBA championships. But how many times did Jordan play in the playoffs to win those rings?