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.
"I think people get caught up in calling teams a young team. This is not a young team," said former NBA guard and ESPN analyst Jon Barry. "This team has been together long enough. They have taken the steps, they've taken their lumps (in the last two playoffs). This team has made progressions. They've been together, added a few pieces here and there. I think they know what it takes. I think they understand the process.
"They're certainly not playoff neophytes. They've had success. I think they're primed, and I think they're ready."
Better and better
The Thunder has progressed each of the past three seasons, from 50 victories and a .610 percent winning percentage two seasons ago to 55 victories and a .671 percent winning percentage last season. This season, they finished 47-19, a .712 winning percentage.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks was asked if his team is built to take something of a shortcut to a championship.
"We've never looked at it that way," he said. "We've always felt we have to hit every step along the way. We talk about those things every day. We work on those good habits every day, and it has been good to us. It has gotten us in a pretty good position, but we don't know. We don't know how good Kevin is going to be. I've never put a ceiling on Russell.
"I've just felt if we work them every day and our guys are committed to each other, we're going to become a very good team. Is it faster than normal? I don't know. I just know how we do it."
No complete favorite
The Thunder won those 47 games this season despite going 7-7 down the stretch. Barry said the number of turnovers Oklahoma City commits concerns him in a tight playoff series.
ESPN analyst Hubie Brown said he would like to see more ball movement and less 1-on-1 play from the Thunder when playoff games turn into contests of half-court offensive execution.
But Adelman knows what the Thunder can do when it's humming. He saw that the night Westbrook scored 45 points and Durant 40 in a 149-140 double-overtime victory over the Wolves last month in Oklahoma City.
The biggest question about the Thunder might be how Harden recovers from a concussion caused when Lakers forward Metta World Peace elbowed him in the head last week.
"Those guys are going to have to play at a high level when the game is on the line, and I remember one game against us when they all proved they can play at a high level when the game is on the line," Adelman said. "I don't think there's any complete favorite this year. Everybody thought Miami had it locked out the way they were playing, but now they've stumbled. There are a lot of teams out there that can win it.
"This team is pretty consistent. I don't know if they're lacking anything."
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