The NBA is not traditionally kind to franchises trying to break into its championship club for the very first time. Before the Toronto Raptors won their first NBA title in 2019, a group of just 11 teams had monopolized all of the previous 39 championships dating back to 1980 -- of which only six (or 15%) represented a franchise winning its first ring.
But little did we know at the time that those 2019 Raptors would signal a big shift in the NBA's competitive environment going forward. In the six seasons from 2019 through 2024, six different teams won the Larry O'Brien Trophy -- joining 1975 to 1980 as the only six-year stretches in NBA history featuring six different champions.