Most significant championships of the decade

Some championships mean more than others. Tom Brady's fourth Super Bowl (tying Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw) and fifth (surpassing them) mean more than his six (an add-on).

Major League Baseball, the NHL, and theNBA have 30 teams each, and the NFL has 32. The average fan will enjoy a championship from his favorite team only two or three times in his lifetime. Some a lot more, some a lot less.

For less-fortunate fan bases, then, the championship means a lot. Fans of dynastic teams may forget the kind of details that are the stuff of legend to fans who enjoy just one championship.

So I decided to put down the most signficant championships of the decade, based on:

• Importance to a city and its fan base. 
• The legacy of stars on the team.

The example which provokes the idea is from the last decade: the 2009 New Orleans Saints. It was the team's first championship, and, four years after Katrina, it is was a comeback story for the city. It's also important in how we remember Drew Brees: in additional to all the passing records he holds, he's a Super Bowl Champion.

Here are the teams, by sport.

Football

• Seattle Seahawks, 2013
• Philadelphia Eagles, 2017

All the other Super Bowl champions of the decade had won at least one other in the previous 15 seasons. Seattle as a city has just one other major sport championship, the 1979 Supersonics (which no longer exist). If Russell Wilson doesn't win another Super Bowl, he'll have this one. Like Brees, it will mean a lot to his legacy.

Although Philadelphia has had some championships in other sports, the Eagles hadn't won the NFL championship since 1960, in the pre-Super Bowl era.

Baseball 

• Chicago Cubs, 2016
• Houston Astros, 2017
• San Francisco Giants, 2010

This was the Cubs first championship since 1908, and first appearnce in a World Series since 1945.

The Astros won their first championship since their inception as the Colt .45s in 1962, and delivered the city its first championship of any kind since the Rockets in 1995.

The Giants hadn't won the World Series in 52 previous seasons in San Francisco. This is almost forgotten as they won two more in the decade, and Bay Area fans then got do enjoy the Warriors dynasty.

The Nationals also won their first Series, but the franchise had been in D.C. for only 15 years, so they're kind of ahead of the curve.

Basketball

• Cleveland Cavaliers, 2016
• Dallas Mavericks, 2011
• Toronto Raptors, 2019

Cleveland hadn't won a championship in any sport since 1964, and this championship secured LeBron's legacy as one of the two or three greatest players in basketball history.

The Mavericks championship was its team's first ever, and much like Brees and Wilson, it elevated Dirk Nowitzki's reputation to another level. The Raptors also won their first, and they repesented an entire country that had experienced a Stanley Cup drought since 1993.

Golden State ended a 40-year championship drought as well, then won two more. Unlike say, Nowitzki or Alex Ovechkin (see below), its star of 2015, Steph Curry, didn't have something to prove in his career.

Hockey

• 2018 Washington Capitals
• 2019 St. Louis Blues
• 2010 Chicago Blackhawks

The Capitals won their first Cup, and it was legacy-cementing for Alex Ovechkin, who removed himself from the "greatest players to never win a championship" list. The Blues also won their first Cup in city that recently lost its NFL team. The Blackhawks won their first in 50 years and won two more in the decade.

The Kings also won their first-ever Cup, and the Bruins their first in nearly 40 years, but they were almost afterthoughts in their own cities as the Lakers and Celtics (plus Patriots and Red Sox) had enjoyed recent success.

Of all the fans I was happiest for at the time, I would say Cubs fans followed by Cleveland fans. Of the players, I was happiest for Dirk and Ovechkin.  

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