The NBA is in an unprecedented era of parity.
When the New York Knicks beat San Antonio in game five on Saturday, it was the eighth unique NBA champion in the past eight seasons, dating back to the Toronto Raptors’ title in 2019. That’s 26.67% of the league that has won a title in less than a decade.
For fans of the Utah Jazz, there are two questions regarding this unique time in the NBA’s history: How long will the parity era last, and can the Jazz strike while the iron is hot?
During this eight-year
stretch, five teams either won their first title or won their first title since pre-1979 — the Jazz’s first season in Utah. Those teams were the Raptors (2019), Bucks (2021), Nuggets (2023), Thunder (2025) and Knicks (2026). The Pacers were one game away from claiming their first championship in 2025.
In the last eight years, 43.3% of the NBA’s franchise’s have reached the finals and 60% of teams have made the conference finals. The closest the Utah Jazz got during that time was in 2021, when they lost in six games to the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round.
If all goes according to plan, the Jazz will be in the playoffs for the indefinite future. The Thunder and Spurs are the clear frontrunners for the West over the next few years, but both teams could look incredibly different in two years than they do now.
Because of current roster and salary construction in the NBA, it’s difficult to keep all key pieces of a team in tact for more than a few seasons at a time. It’s hard to predict what today’s best teams will look like even two seasons from now — which is what makes this era one of great parity. The current collective bargaining agreement that is in place for the NBA does not expire until the end of the 2029-30 season, so expect the next four years to be filled with as much parity as the rest of the decade.
So until this parity era comes to an end, can the Utah Jazz make the colorful list of teams that won in the 2020’s?
