Ladies and gentlemen, who is the greatest team in the history of MLB? NBA? NFL? NHL? The debate could rage forever, but what if there was some type of way to determine who was the best on the field, either in real life or the virtual field? Then of course the debate would be who should be included, how to determine, how to rank for a tournament, etc.

Well luckily others have done calculations that have created rankings that I have used to select the 12 (NFL) or 16 (MLB, NBA, & NHL) teams of all-time up to 2005. After looking through the Internet I have found web sites or articles that reveal these lists. Thus the lists below reflect them.

NHL
(Must have won the Stanley Cup; No multiple teams within few than five years; Franchises limited to four teams)
http://members.shaw.ca/hbtn/team_study/top_teams.htm
http://mcubed.net/nhl/bwb100.shtml
1977 Montreal Canadiens
1989 Calgary Flames
1939 Boston Bruins
1944 Montreal Canadiens
1982 New York Islanders
1959 Montreal Canadiens
1987 Edmonton Oilers
1999 Dallas Stars
2002 Detroit Red Wings
1972 Boston Bruins
1974 Philadelphia Flyers
1952 Detroit Red Wings
2001 Colorado Avalanche
1920 Ottawa Senators
1968 Montreal Canadiens
1951 Toronto Maple Leafs

NBA
(Must have won the NBA Championship; No multiple teams within few than five years; Franchises limited to four teams)
http://www.nba.com/playoffs2004/challenge_rankings.html
1996 Chicago Bulls
1972 Los Angeles Lakers
1967 Philadelphia 76ers
1986 Boston Celtics
1971 Milwaukee Bucks
1983 Philadelphia 76ers
1987 Los Angeles Lakers
1989 Detroit Pistons
2000 Los Angeles Lakers
1999 San Antonio Spurs
1991 Chicago Bulls
1960 Boston Celtics
1965 Boston Celtics
1981 Boston Celtics
2005 San Antonio Spurs*
1970 New York Knicks
* The 1950 Minneapolis Lakers would have been the 15th-seed, however WhatIfSports.com’s NBA Teams goes only to the 1951-52 season. The 2005 San Antonio Spurs 59-23, .720 regular season winning % and 16-7, .696 postseason winning % gave them a combined 75-105, .714 total winning %. It should be noted that several 2006 teams have a chance to be added to list.

NFL
(Only NFL and/or Super Bowl Champions since 1950 eligible)
1985 Chicago Bears
1996 Green Bay Packers (7.49)
1999 St. Louis Rams (6.91)
1991 Washington Redskins (6.89)
1979 Pittsburgh Steelers (6.69)
1962 Green Bay Packers (6.68)
1972 Miami Dolphins (6.63)
1971 Dallas Cowboys (6.61)
1955 Cleveland Browns (6.40)
1989 San Francisco 49ers (6.29)
1994 San Francisco 49ers (6.27)
1958 Baltimore Colts (6.02)

MLB
(Must have won the World Series; No multiple teams within few than five years; Franchises limited to four teams)
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/best_major_league_teams_ever.shtml
1927 New York Yankees
1939 New York Yankees
1907 Chicago Cubs
1932 New York Yankees
1910 Philadelphia A’s
1905 New York Giants
1998 New York Yankees
1929 Philadelphia A’s
1909 Pittsburgh Pirates
1970 Baltimore Orioles
1912 Boston Red Sox
1976 Cincinnati Reds
1922 New York Giants
1954 New York Giants
1984 Detroit Tigers
1917 Chicago White Sox

As on how to determine the greatest team of all-time? Well as I mentioned before WhatIfSports.com exists and can simulate games. But how to do it. The lists above show the teams ranked ready for the playoffs. The NFL will go like today’s NFL with the top four seeds getting byes until the quarterfinals where they’ll face the four First Round victors in inverse order (i.e. the top ranked team gets the lowest surviving team). While in MLB, NBA, and NHL all sixteen teams will play in the first round in best-of-seven series, however they will ‘reseed’ after every round like today’s current NHL and MLB (to some extent) and not have a fixed bracket like today’s NBA. This will assure that in the quarterfinals there won’t be a 1 vs. 8 series along with a 10 vs. 15 series. Thus if the 12th or 16th-seed team were to win, it can’t be said they traveled an easy road and likewise if a top four seeded team were to win it’ll show that they were better than the supposedly ‘fluff’ teams in the tournament and when it came time for the bigger boys they were ready.

So when will this happen. Well since the NBA Playoffs this year could see a few teams win the title and get onto the All-Time Greatest Teams list, then they will wait until after the NBA Finals (if the Detroit Pistons or San Antonio Spurs win the NBA Title they automatically are included, if Dallas wins with a 16-7 or 16-8 record in the postseason they will qualify). I’m going to begin these All-Time Playoffs with the NHL in one week and possibly the NFL as well since they’ll only face off once a week. After the conclusion of the NHL All-Time Stanley Cup Playoffs along with the NFL All-Time Playoffs, this year’s NBA Playoffs will have most likely concluded and the All-Time teams firmly established to begin the playoffs if WhatIfSports has created the team profiles in time. Along with the NBA, the MLB All-Time Playoffs will begin as well. Look for daily updates to this blog on who the All-Time Playoffs are going until the greatest teams of All-Time are decided.

See you next week as the All-Time Stanley Cup Playoffs and All-Time Super Bowl Playoffs begin.