Best franchise winning percentage watch

[Celtics2021]

I haven't seen this reported anywhere, but there's an incredibly tight race for best winning percentage of all time going on.  We all know that the Celtics have the most wins ever, but for a long time the Spurs have had the best winning percentage thanks to Pop having been the coach for half of the franchise's existence.  However, with their fall-off last year and tanking this year, they are now #2 behind the Lakers by the smallest of amounts (.000156).  However, our beloved Celtics are right there with them, only .000225 behind San Antonio and .000381 behind the Lakers. 

In fact, it is so close that it's possible that we take over 1st place on Tuesday in LA!  We would have to sweep the rest of our road trip, while the Lakers would need to lose their next three games (including to us) while the Spurs would need to go 1-2 (or worse).  The Lakers play at Philly and at Detroit before returning to LA to host the Celtics.  Those aren't guaranteed losses, but neither are they guaranteed wins.  Meanwhile, the Spurs host Houston tonight, and then visit Miami and Cleveland.  It would be very surprising if the Spurs won two of three.  We, of course, would need to beat the Warriors and Clippers on the road before taking care of the Lakers, but as well as the team is playing, this is achieavable.

Anyway, this is something to watch -- the Celtics should have the all-time wining percentage lead sooner than later, but it would be pretty fun to take it from the Lakers in person on Tuesday!

You can sort here for winning percentages.  https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/

[Roy H.]

Well, hopefully after the season we're right where we should be, first outright in titles, games won and winning percentage.

[slamtheking]

Well, hopefully after the season we're right where we should be, first outright in titles, games won and winning percentage.

amen to that

[Donoghus]

Pretty wild that the percentages are so close btw three teams.

[Celtics2021]

Pretty wild that the percentages are so close btw three teams.

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that.  I was casually looking up how many wins we're up on the Lakers given we're playing them next week.  And I decided to sort by wining percentage, and was a) shocked that the Lakers were on top, which must have happened last week and no one talked about it, and that b) three teams could be so close after thousands of games.  The Lakers and Spurs lead the Celtics by practically as many games in the all-time standings as the Celtics lead the Bucks in 1/3 of a season.

I hope someone in the media picks up on the all-time winning percentage race soon.  Something like this isn't going to happen again for awhile, given the trajectories of the three teams.  For perspective, the 4th-place Jazz would have to win their next 440 games to catch up to where the Celtics are.

[Donoghus]

Pretty wild that the percentages are so close btw three teams.

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that.  I was casually looking up how many wins we're up on the Lakers given we're playing them next week.  And I decided to sort by wining percentage, and was a) shocked that the Lakers were on top, which must have happened last week and no one talked about it, and that b) three teams could be so close after thousands of game.  The Lakers and Spurs lead the Celtics by practically as many games in the all-time standings as the Celtics lead the Bucks in 1/3 of a season.

I hope someone in the media picks up on the all-time winning percentage race soon.  Something like this isn't going to happen again for awhile, given the trajectories of the three teams.  For perspective, the 4th-place Jazz would have to win their next 440 games to catch up to where the Celtics are.

For team sports, kinda coincidental with the Packers finally passing the Bears for most wins in NFL history last weekend.

[Celtics2021]

Pretty wild that the percentages are so close btw three teams.

Yeah, I was really surprised to see that.  I was casually looking up how many wins we're up on the Lakers given we're playing them next week.  And I decided to sort by wining percentage, and was a) shocked that the Lakers were on top, which must have happened last week and no one talked about it, and that b) three teams could be so close after thousands of game.  The Lakers and Spurs lead the Celtics by practically as many games in the all-time standings as the Celtics lead the Bucks in 1/3 of a season.

I hope someone in the media picks up on the all-time winning percentage race soon.  Something like this isn't going to happen again for awhile, given the trajectories of the three teams.  For perspective, the 4th-place Jazz would have to win their next 440 games to catch up to where the Celtics are.

For team sports, kinda coincidental with the Packers finally passing the Bears for most wins in NFL history last weekend.

I hadn’t realized that, but yes, that’s quite the coincidence!