A young Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls lost first-round playoff series in three successive seasons, then lost in the second round once and the Eastern Conference finals twice before they won the 1991 NBA title, their first of six in the next eight years.
A Los Angeles Lakers team built around a young Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant lost a Western Conference final sandwiched between two second-round losses in three years before winning the 2000 NBA title, their first of three consecutive championships.
Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks made the playoffs 10 consecutive years, losing once in the conference finals and once in the NBA Finals, before winning their first title last season.
For many NBA champions, the path there is a progression that often requires patience and perseverance.
Is the Oklahoma City Thunder - a team anointed as the one to watch in the NBA for the next decade - ready to skip a step or two and win it all in just its third playoff appearance?
The Thunder is only three seasons removed from a 3-29 start, rebuilt by General Manager Sam Presti with a combination of good luck and acumen that Timberwolves fans can only dream their team's management possessed.
Two years ago, the Thunder pushed the defending champion Lakers to six games in a first-round series, the franchise's first playoff series since it played in Seattle five years earlier.
Last season, the Thunder reached the Western Conference finals before losing in five games to Dallas, the eventual NBA champion.
Could this be their time?
"Oh, I think so," Wolves coach Rick Adelman said. "This team can get there. There's no reason they can't."
'Long enough'
MVP candidate Kevin Durant, often absolutely unguardable because of his size and range, is 23. Russell Westbrook might be more shooting guard than pass-first point guard, but he is redefining that position along with Chicago's Derrick Rose with his combination of size and freakish athleticism - and he's just 23, too. Swingman James Harden not only possesses the league's greatest beard, but he also could be both Sixth Man and Most Improved Player of the Year if media voters were honest and didn't withhold votes for one guy in one category just because they voted for him in another.
And Harden is only 22.
The grizzled veteran - forward Kendrick Perkins - that the Thunder got last season to add experience and playing muscle to a tenderly young team is all of 27.
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