10 Revenge Championships in NBA History

1983 Finals: Philadelphia 76ers 4-0 Los Angeles Lakers

Moses Malone (L) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (R) (Image Courtesy: NBA.com)

1982 Finals: Los Angeles Lakers 4-2 Philadelphia 76ers

It's safe to say the Philadelphia 76ers were quite pissed off, come 1982. They'd lost three NBA Finals in a six-year stretch and two in the last three years to the Lakers. A problem for the Sixers when they came up against LA was the inability to deal with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

So, how does one counter that? Well how about signing the reigning MVP Moses Malone eh. Can you imagine a stacked team signing an MVP caliber player just after losing an NBA Finals? Oh, wait...

Anyway, the two teams barely broke a sweat in getting back to the Finals and Malone proved to be the difference on the big stage. He dominated LA on the glass averaging 18 rebounds a game as the Sixers swept the Lakers in dominant fashion.

Malone was unsurprisingly named Finals MVP as he helped the Sixers finally get over the hump. The Lakers were missing Worthy and Norm Nixon but I doubt they'd have made much of a difference.

While a comparison can be drawn with Kevin Durant's move to Golden State, I'd say Philly really needed Malone to get past the Lakers. They'd come up short in the Finals all three times due to the lack of a dominant force in the paint and Moses provided that.

Of all the revenge titles on the list, this one probably meant the most to the team. Philly had come up short time and time again and it was a big relief to finally win one.