As you probably know by now, the Miami Heat became the second-ever 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals, and the first to do so in an 82-game season (the Knicks did it in the lockout season in 1999).

While I was reflecting on how incredible their run has been, considering how close they were to missing the playoffs after losing the 7th seed to the Atlanta Hawks, I realized something obvious that never crossed my mind: the Playoffs path to the NBA Finals is slightly easier for an 8 seed than it is for a 7 seed.

If you think about it, assuming there are no other upsets, an 8 seed will have to defeat the #1, #4, and #2 seeds, while a 7 seed will have to face the top three teams in the conference (#2 in the first round, #3 in the second round, and finally #1 in the Conference Finals).

As a stat geek who routinely finds myself wasting hours on end tracking down stats that will never significantly affect my life, I started wondering how many times a 7 seed had actually reached the NBA Finals.

After a quick search, I discovered something quite useless interesting: not only has a 7 seed never made it to the NBA Finals, but the only two times they reached the Conference Finals, they were swept.

The only 7 seeds to ever make it to the Conference Finals were the Seattle Supersonics in 1987 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023, both of whom were swept by the #1 seed (Lakers in '87, Nuggets in 2023), after defeating the #2 seed in the first round and the #6 seed in the second round (in both cases, the #3 seed lost in the first round).

As a side note, only one team has ever managed to complete this "royal run" and defeat the #1, #2, and #3 seeds in the same playoff run: the 1995 Houston Rockets, who then went on to win the title against Orlando.

ESPN: IF YOU HAVE TO STEAL THIS, MAKE SURE YOU MENTION THE SOURCE AND THE SUBREDDIT