So many great teams in sports history have had to face a powerhouse that just won’t seem to get out of the way. In the 1960s, the Los Angeles Lakers, with Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich and, at the end, Wilt Chamberlain (Hall-of-Famers all), were a fantastic basketball team. But the Lakers had the misfortune of meeting the Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics six times in the NBA finals that decade, and they lost every time.
In the 1940s and ’50s, New York City had two great baseball teams (three, if you count the Giants).
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