This year’s Golden State Warriors set the record for most regular season wins by a National Basketball Association team, eclipsing by one win the record previously held by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. Yet, while the Bulls captured the NBA title, the Warriors lost a 7 game series to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Falling short in that goal has led many in Chicago to state that the Warriors’ record is tarnished. In fact, both Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman quickly declared their Bulls teams the greatest ever after the Warriors’ loss (see, for example, http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NBA/2016/06/20/Scottie-Pippen-Dennis-Rodman-1995-96-Bulls-were-greatest-team-ever/8331466444426/).
Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners did much the same thing in 2001.