Spend 1 Season with 1 Team from History

[tuq]

Maybe I'm boring (actually, OK, I am), but I'd choose the 1969 Boston Celtics. Here was a team that had won 11 of the past 12 championships (I think that's correct; too lazy to check), Bill Russell and Sam Jones were playing on borrowed time, the year before they'd somehow stolen the ECF from the Sixers - who had Wilt Chamberlain. This was a Sixers team coming off arguably the best season in league history, including the '96 Bulls. They were 68-13 against a much smaller league in '67 and had several all-stars on their roster. Despite another great year the Celtics beat them in the '68 playoffs after falling behind 1-3 in the series, and then won the finals.

I've read a book about that '69 season called "Dynasty's End" and can almost smell the nasty socks and BO in the locker room. Following that season, the Celtics suffered an incredible collapse matched only by the '99 Bulls. But the '69 season was more remarkable because it shouldn't have happened at all. The Celtics qualified for the playoffs as the lowest seed and creaked their way to the finals, and beat the Lakers in game 7 - in LA no less. Really a great story about putting winning ahead of egos. Probably not likely to happen in this day and age. Would have liked to have been there.