40_20

Legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson had a “40/20” rule: if you win 40 games before you lose 20, you are officially a contender to win the NBA title. I wanted to see if there was anything behind this, so I scraped Basketball Reference and compiled the end of season outcome for every 40+ win team since the NBA-ABA merger (1978-1979 season).

Only 4 teams have ever won the NBA Finals after losing their 20th game before winning their 40th (the 1979 Seattle Super Sonics, 1995 Houston Rockets, 2004 Detroit Pistons, 2006 Miami Heat)!




Edit: This graphic was made in 2020, since then one more team has won the finals while breaking Phil Jackson’s rule, the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks.

Edit 2: In 2025 this still holds up! No team since the Bucks in 2021 have won the finals while breaking this rule.

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