The Wages Of Win

THE LAST SIX NBA champions have had two things in common: They've played outstanding basketball, and they've been relatively frugal. Since the 2000--01 season, the team that won the title had a total payroll right around the league average. Big spenders haven't fared nearly as well. No team with the league's highest total salary has won a playoff series since Portland in 2000. (In three of the past five years the team with the highest payroll has missed the playoffs—that'd be New York each time.) There's a solid chance that that trend will be bucked this year: The Suns, the No. 2 seed in the West, had basketball's priciest roster.

[This article contains a chart. Please see hard copy or pdf.]

�