The Best Combined NBA & NHL Finals Ever

There's a good debate going on that through four games the 2026 Stanley Cup Final is one of the best ever - an insane series that has featured a team coming down from at least two goals down in every game - a game that has been tied with four minutes to go in each, that has had two OTs, that has every team score at least three goals in every game - a first in decades. It has been insane, some of the most incredible hockey we've seen. There is a very good argument it has been the lesser of the two finals going on right now.

The NBA finals through four games has also been incredible, featuring two one point games, two others that were tied with two minutes to go, that has featured some insane shots and threes adn defense adn runs and atmosphere. And of course, the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. And again, there is an argument this is the worse of the two series.

Ever since ESPN/ABC and TNT got back into the hockey game five years back, wwhich has e've basically had the Stanley Cup Final and the NBA Finals run in parallel, alternating days.. Weirdly, the current TV deals has it where ESPN/ABC has both one year, and I guess NBC and TNT will have it the other year, but overall, we get them back to back, which has somehow only increased how good these series are. There is no time to rest, before we ingest how good one NBA game is, hockey is dropping its puck the next day. So far, the closest we've come to having two good series in a year is probably 2022, when the Lighting and Avs in hockey, and the Celtics and Warriors each went to six games. But other than that, its been one good and one bad - be it last year where hockey ended early, but the NBA went seven, or the prior year when it was the opposite, it is hard to get both good both years... until now.

It is so rare to get two series this good that both feature the best of the sport, and the silliest of the sport. Arguably, neither series has been all that well played, at least by the standard of their sports best - but both teams have been equally loose, equally wild, equally silly. That's how you get four straight games with a team blowing a two-goal lead on the hockey sidhas e (even if the Knights won one of those). And how you get four games where the Spurs blew a 12+ point lead, even if they won one of those. You can say that is a commentary on teh Spurs, but in Game 2, the Knicks nearly blew a 14-point lead with four minutes to go, which if anything would have been a bigger collapse than what the Spurs did in this most recent game. This has been wild, if only that the games have been a bit unvarnished, a bit "real".

The thrill of seeing these back to back has been unreal, in the best ways and again with it basically being on back to back nights in parallel, you get this great crossover. Each feeding to the next. Both series are getting their best ratings in years. For the NBA, this makes sense - the Knicks alone being in the finals taps into the biggest media market in the country in a way the NBA hasn't had the ability to do in 27 years. For the NHL, its weird that this series featuring two untraditional markets in Carolina and Vegas would draw so well. Part of it is the hockey has been thrilling and close. Part of it has been the carryover effect from the Olympics (which is absolutely a thing). At the end, though, some of it is just some folks watching ESPN one day watching basketball, and deciding to watch the hockey the next day.

In the end, neither of these series may go to seven games. Hell, the NBA finals may end in five - but even if it does, it will still be remembered forever. Not only because that means we have a New York Knicks team winning the finals, which is still a bit crazy to conceptualize, but we've had some amazing games. The Stanley Cup Finals may end in six, but it will still end that way setting numerous records in terms of mutual goal scoring and comebacks. However this ends, this will have been a glorious two weeks of watching these two sports toss it back and forth, and show again why these two sports deserve each other in the best way possible.

Re-Post: Nostalgia Diaries, Pt. 1: Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals

I started the Nostalgia Diaries series nine years ago, and the first one talked about a game taht was already at that point six years old. Now it is 15 years old. It was the best played game in a series that was generally well played (if too defensive), in one of the most energized finals, the first of the Heatles. At the tail end, after Jason Terry hit one of the great Heat Check threes in Finals history over LeBron, Jeff Van Gundy said "This is one of the best Finals games I've ever seen", and I think 15-years later, it still remains one of the best I too have ever seen.

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Let's take a trip down memory lane, to a place in time that was recent enough to be this decade, but long enough ago to when the Warriors were a mess of a franchise, the world hadn't heard of Kawhi Leonard, Derrick Rose was the reigning MVP, and Dwight Howard probably should have won it. Yes, now all of these diary entries can start with a similar 'back in the day' lineup of events not to have occurred yet. But this really was a different time. LeBron James was the most hated athlete in America. The Mavericks were the perennial chokers who with a band of random aging ex all-stars thrown together like the Expendables fought back against the Heatles for the good of America. It all crested in one of the best NBA finals games ever, a back-and-forth, dagger-filled game of multiple 'Bang's' a signature 'Hand down, Man down!' and the world of basketball coming together behind Dallas as it took on the world.

37-year old Jason Kidd had never won a title. Jason Terry was 33, Peja Stojakovic was 33, Dirk Nowitzki was 32 and Shawn Marion was 32. But in NBA terms, after tons of deep runs they were all, in normal terms, in the great twilight of their effective NBA careers (Nowitzki excepted, of course). That they, with a 28-year old Tyson Chandler, and aging role players in Deshaun Stevenson and JJ Barea, could beat the Heat seemed impossible. They won Game 2 of the finals with an all-time quick-hit comeback, goign on a 20-3 run to end the game after falling down by 15 with six minutes left in the 4th quarter. They won Game 4 by playing a ridiculous level of defense. Actually, the first four games of the series were defined by defense. No one scored 100 points in a game. Hell, no one even scored 30 in any quarter until Game 5. It was 2-2, entering Game 5, back in the days of the 2-3-2 series. Dallas needed that game. Miami wanted it. Dallas won it, in the best way possible.

Until that series, Dallas had never really been an underdog, a place where the crowd had to get behind their raggedy team, but playing the Heatles changed that, and that Dallas crowd was all in, from the beginning with a quick start by Dallas giving them a 15-6 lead. Miami came back, but never pulled away, and the crowd was riotous the whole way through. What defined the game was what the crowd cheered for more than anything, a complete, unmistakable, before-its-time barrage of threes.

Dallas finished the game 13-20 from three. This is in a pre-Warriors, pre-Rockets era when that was fairly unheard of. Each one was better than the rest. There was aging, balding, custodian-like in every way Brian Cardinal, to DeShaun Stevenson mean-mugging a pair, to Jason Kidd, to so many others. Some were just audacious. Jason Terry hit a bank three off balance falling backwards. JJ Barea hit a pair, including one of the highest-arcing threes I've ever seen. If ever there was a three that could compete with the height of Barea's it would be the one that Dirk Nowitzki hit a few minutes later.

The Heat came to play as well. Mario Chalmers, before he became the starting PG for two title teams, high three threes. Mike Miller added a few. This was the year before the Heat really figured out their rotation, when hilariously, Juwon Howard and Mike Bibby were rotation players. So many small moments in the game stay with me the few times I've rewatched, but nothing more than this being an intersection between the game as it would become (jacking threes from all over) to the game of the past that I'm really nostalgic for (Peja, Kidd, Terry, Matrix, Bibby, etc.). The first half was an incredible back-and-forth run of threes and jams and fast breaks, ending with Dallas up 60-57. The pace slowed in teh second, but the intensity remained and the legacy grew.

The Big 3 of course made their mark in such different ways. LeBron only really took the alpha dog role in Miami the next year, and in this series you had to wonder who was the actual alpha. Wade was far better than LeBron in the 2011 Finals, and this game featured that odd dynamic to a tee. Wade injured his hip in teh first half, and twice needed to recede back to the Heat locker room for treatment. He twice came back, fueling Heat runs both time. LeBron was healthy, but mentally impaired. He continued arguably his worst playoff series of his career. James was absent, so often standing behind the arc catching and passing off the ball in one continuous motion. His few drives seemed lazy and uninspired. James learned so much from this series, never taking a playoff series off in his life again. He learned, we all did.

The game hit its apex late in the game, with the Jason Terry three heard around the NBA world. The Mavs were up 105-101 but a few stops and the Heat had a chance. Haslem walled off and denied Nowitzki well, leaving the Jason's Kidd and Terry to pass the ball back and forth. With the shot clock hitting five, Terry pulled him, dribbled a few times and launched. Launched it over James, over the NBA aristocracy that was supposed to make the season a foregone conclusion, and nailed in. Breen gave an All-Time bang. JET, despite saying he wouldn't do it until the series was over, ran down the court, arms extended in his trademark pose. He popped the Jersey. He earned it. The Mavericks as a whole earned it.

The game returned to Jackson pounding James defense in a way only he can ('Hand down... Man DOWN!') and Van Gundy called it the best finals game he had ever seen. Van Gundy isn't one for hyperbole but he was right, this was truly a special game. It was still to date, the last stand for the old non-Big Three / Superteam driven NBA. With a style that would become in vogue but a team far from it, the Mavericks showed what depth, what drive, what passion could do. They would wrap things up in Game 6 in Dallas in a surprisingly easy road win, but this game was the true legacy one. It was a show for a city that embraced basketball for years getting their due, with a handful of players who have Hall of Fame cases collectively getting theirs.

The Villains of Vegas

The Vegas Golden Knights are playing in the Stanley Cup Final, and are if anything somehow the betting favorite. A sleeping giant all year, one that always had really strong underlying numbers despite having awful luck, they awoke fully when coach Bruce Cassidy was fired with eight games to go in the season, repalced by John Tortorella. The Knights suddenly didn't lose in those eight games, avoided a scare against the Ducks, and then ran roughshod over the heretofore clear best team in teh league. The 2026 Knights are a fun story, but the fact that this is their third trip to the Cup Final in nine years of existing, and a whole other host of issues are putting a dark, Golden Knights gray-themed cloud over everything.

Let's start with one clear point, the Vegas players, with one (huge) exception I will talk about, are mostly blameless. We can quibble about Mitch Marner's drama in leaving Toronto and shitting on them on the way out, but whatever. On the ice, he's a great player who is finding another gear. There are a lot of generally talented and likeable players on the team, from Mark Stone, healthier than he has been in years, to Jack Eichel, to youngsters like Dorofayev and so many others. But everything about Vegas the organization is just tough to deal with right at this second.

Let's start with maybe the most ridiculous thing going on right now, which is the saga of teh Vegas Golden Knights not letting fired coach Bruce Cassidy interview for the Edmonton Oilers job. Yes, I get that the Oilers are a division rival, but I just don't understand how the Knights should be able to block someone they chose to fire. I get that technically tehy gave him some other FO role or something, but this just wreaks of the "we don't have to play by teh rules" approach that they've had for years now. How no one has made a bigger deal out of this is beyond me.

Then there's the signing of Carter Hart, one of the Canada Hockey guys who went on trail for sexually assaulting a woman. Yes, they were found not guilty, and a level further than just standard "not guilty" (though critically, not "innocent") but there was a lot of weird stuff that went on in that trial even outside of anything to do with the players. Most of the five players caught up in that have been persona-non-grata in the league. They all got suspended for a while. No one touched Hart, until the Golden Knights had goalie trouble, and of course Hart has repaid them by being brilliant (it always works out for the worst people).

We can go further on this, both micro - like them not speaking to the media, which resulted in a big fine and losing a 2nd round pick (honestly, good on Bettman there). And then macro, like their repeated playing aroudn with the salary cap / LTIR rules when it came to Mark Stone. Yes, many other teams did something of the like, including memorably the Lightning with Kucherov in the 2020-21 season, but teh Knights did it multiple years in a row with the same player without even the least shred of guilt.

Finally in my list of greivances is yes, the cold ruthless way they've churned through players. Now, to be fair, by all reports they are an extremely accommodating franchise to current players, but the second a player outlives what they feel his usefulness to be, by god to they go for the jugular. The first and most memorable example was Marc-Andre Fleury and the famous back-stabbing photojob by his agent after they traded for Robin Lehner. At the time, people were mostly in the "come on Marc, grow up" camp, but little did we know that was the first in a series of cruel, cold, calculating decisions. Now, most of them have worked - its why this team has made its 3rd Stanley Cup Final with a roster that includes just three of the misfits from the first season, but its also led to a lot of sour memories. 

None of this matters if you are a Vegas fan, and more than that, a fan of the NHL at large. Vegas's success out of the game, and more than that even, their continued success, is a story worth celebrating for the league. They took the jump into Las Vegas before anyone (a city that by 2031 or so will likely have all four major sports), and I've read a lot of reports that Vegas cares about the Knights more than the Raidres, adn certainly will more than the A's (if that even happens at this point). I would dare claim they'll remain more popular than the NBA team. The NHL moved first, and it has paid off spectacularly creating a singular event-like atmosphere there, as the team's game production has leaned far into the things Vegas affords you. Still, you just wish you could like the organization a bit more.

Eight years ago I wrote about Vegas when they made that first Cup Final, and wrote largely that I was fine with that fact. I awsn't jealous of this upstart team making a final. It helps when I had watched my favorite team win a few by that point. I thought it was cool that the NHL had this magical story, and the Knights that year were one. The second that second year, when they traded for Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, becuase they rightly realized their first season was still a bit of a fluke, and they became this ruthless, never-ending series of trades, signings adn cap machinations, it quickly became less magical. In 2018, I wasn't mad at Vegas for making the final, but was greatly hoping they wouldn't win, mostly because I wanted Ovi to get his cup. There's no Ovi on the 2026 Hurricanes, but still - for the good of all of us, Vegas, just lie down. Especially since god knows what a loss in teh final will convince their ownership and leadership to try next.

Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals - 2016/26

There is a Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals that is about to start, as I write this from a beer bar in San Diego (a place that may find itself on a list in a bit...). An initially favored defending champ will be at home, trying to fend off an upstart team that is younger, somehow more athletic, with an alien as their best player. The defending champ has looked good at times, but also horrible in two games in the road teams arena. The world awaits what can be something special.

As it should be fairly obvious right now, other than the writing this from San Diego part, everything in that last paragraph is equally true of 2016 and 2026 - the interesting twist being the Thunder the upstart ten years back and a completely different Thunder team being the defending champs this time. Sure, you can quibble that the Thunder weren't really "upstarts" in 2016, having been to the finals four years earlier, and if anything established themselves before the Warriors outran them to a ring, but Durant, Westbrook, et. al, in 2016 were younger than teh Warriors core. And sure, the contours of the series a bit different, with the Warriors forcing Game 7 with their classic in Game 6 after being down 3-1, while this has been less dramatic to get here, but whats more interesting is how the NBA finds itself at a very similar place a decade later.

And what a decade it has been. First, the NBA became a joke when one of the main characters in that series, the alien best player (Kevin Durant) left to join the other team and basically make the next 2-3 seasons a fait accompli, only done in by crazy bad injury luck in the 2019 Finals. Then came Covid, which wreaked havoc the next two years. The NBA swung wildly from insanely predictable (its still ahrd to believe we sat through the exact same finals matchup four years in a row!) to more unpredictable than ever - more playoff upsets than normal, and the oft repeated stat of going seven seasons with seven different winners for the first time ever (starting with the 2019 Raptors). That seems to be coming to something of an end here, even if the Spurs do pull off the upset, because they seem primed for dynasty status as well.

It's funny that this ten year period is ending in parallel with the league's most drastic anti-tanking policy ever, which while to some degree seems well intentioned seems ludicrous to me (will give some thoughts on that later). The NBA just made sure that no team could be created like this current Spurs team was, with top-5 picks three straight years that have all paid off (foundationally, of course, with the Wemby good luck as the start of that). The Thunder aren't the direct result of tanking, but they definitely tried to in some degree (Chet), but also shrewd management that should pay off for years to come. What's more funny in this comparison is taht the Thunder and Spurs played in the playoffs in 2016, the series before the WCF that year, where the Thunder won in six games against teh 67-win Spurs. Both teams tore it down and rebuilt it completely in teh intervening ten years.

In some ways, the league never reached the heights it did in that 2016 playoffs - from the Warriors Game 6 win (and people will forget that the Game 7 that year was fairly competitive), to of course the Cavs 3-1 comeback. But so much of that season poisoned the league in terms of the ever increasing amount of threes, which also led to more and more blowouts, often determined by three point luck. Also, of course, with Durant's move that summer it started another round of super teams and stars switching teams at an increasingly dizzying rate, from Durant himself a few more times, same with Harden and Westbrook, the Kawhi/PG deals, and so much else. That seems to also be blocked off to some degree wtih the aprons and what not. That 2016 season led to a lot of stuff over the next ten years that is just no longer on the table.

I don't know who will win this Game 7 (I'm finishing this as the first quarter is wrapping up), or the Finals this year, and of course know even less of what teh next ten years will hold for the NBA. Maybe the Thunder and Spurs just trade titles back and forth. Maybe some new team rises up like OKC did. Maybe the Lakers will get another star to fall in their laps to pair with Luka. But as I look back at these ten years, it's interesting despite the inevitability of the Warriors, adn the star-hopping and super teams, how many winners we ended up seeing, how many great moments. All I can say is let's hope no key Spur goes and moves to OKC next year or vice-versa. At the very least it seems Wemby hates the Thunder, and Shae and Chet similarly on the Spurs. Good at least to have that competitiveness back.

On the Knicks

Look, I'm not going to pretend like I am a Knicks fan. There are many real Knicks fans that have been long suffering for decades - 50 years since their last title, 27 since their last trip to the Finals, where they really had no realistic shot. The Knicks weren't just bad for most of twenty years, they were embarrassingly so. Those people deserve all the joy they've experienced watching their team turn into a buzzsaw the likes of which we have never seen (just to remind: the Knicks over their 11-game playoff winning streak have the best point differential of any team over an 11-game stretch ever, postseason AND regular season). No, I'm not one of those, but I can still revel in it in my life as a New Yorker, and just really liking this story because this team is so unlike all New York teams in past.

I think there's this perception that New York teams are star-studded and buy Championships and what-not, but this is largely true of just one franchise in this city - the Yankees. Granted, they more than any other team represent New York, but no other team in teh city has done anything like them. In fact, more of the teams in New York are of the Knicks, the 2004 - 2020 vintages - the Jets and Mets notably, laughably awful and embarrassing at times. The Giants being nearly as bad over the past 15 years since their second largely ridiculous Super Bowl. The Devils, long a gold standard in their sport, being underachievers. I won't even dignify the Nets. And then you get the Knicks, who if they weren't in New York, would be far more seen as an accursed franchise.

The Knicks have a bad owner, and for a good twenty years, basically until they hired Leon Rose combined with Jim Dolan turning more of his attention to The Sphere, he was worse than jsut bad, he was meddlesome. We pity teams with bad owners (the Kings, for example), but because the Knicks are in New York, their fans were never pitied for being saddled with a disaster as an owner. 

Truly, if any other franchise had an owner and various leadership consortiums (remember the Phil Jackson era?) that made this many terrible moves, there would be tons of pieces about the long suffering nature of their fans. From bad draft picks, to taking on the wrong reclamation projects, for chasing bad high-spend free agents because they constantly whiffed on the good high-spend ones, to even making their good moves less effective for being so shortsighted (trading for Carmelo Anthony, giving up a bunch of good players, when they were almost certain to sign him anyway). The Knicks fans deserved love because their owner and team was so poorly managed.

The worst was that 4-5 year stretch at the end of the Carmelo era until the trade for Julius Randle, or better known as the Phil Jackson era. The one bright spot in that time, drafting Kristaps Porzingis, was more a tease that ended in disaster, with his injuries never letting him reach his potential in New York, and then the Knicks getting barely anything when trading him away. The Knicks were just a complete afterthought. But damn, was this insane fanbase hiding and waiting their time.

My first memory of how incredible the Knicks fanbase was when in their first good season in seven years, the 2020-21 season when they won nearly 50 games and got the #4 seed, they hosted Game 1 of their playoff series. The attendance restrictions had just been lifted in New York, and the Knicks packed MSG to a crazy way. Sure, Trae Young and the Hawks would win that series, in large part because 2nd team All Pro Julius Randle was super ineffective and the rest of the team similarly so, but the fanbase was back. Two years later, they made the second round for the first time in a decade = still being led by Julius Randle, but with a youngster named Jalen Brunson stepping up in a bigger role. Little by little, they were building something special.

The key of course was Jalen Brunson becoming a monster - and he is so perfect for New York. Hard working, undersized, but confident enough to know how good he is and can be. He is the perfect superstar for the Knicks to get behind. But its everything else that they've done that has been turned to gold - truly no bad moves for a good solid half decade now. Pretty much no real contributor on that 2020-21 team aside from Mitchell Robinson is still doing stuff for the current team, but they replaced the whole roster, more or less, by not shooting and missing at superstars, but selectively building it well.

There was the trade for Josh Hart, the trade for OG Anunoby - two absolute steals, particularly the Anunoby one, them realizing he is a player waiting to be unleashed with a bigger role. Of course the huge move to get KAT for Randle and DiVincenzo - which you can argue has been a win-win, but the Knicks side is the stronger "win" at this point. Of course, there's the much maligned trade of five first round picks for Mikal Bridges, but if that helped Brunson re-sign for less, adn up the team harmony, for what will be at least three of the first round picks being back-half, well then - it was worth it.

The other guys are all so well placed as well - from Deuce McBride as the random 3-point dude, Landry Shamet as the perfect plug and play vet, Jordan Clarkson as a guy who can go off every five games or so. All of it has so obviously clicked in this incredible eleven game stretch to the finals. It's insane how quickly they've just buried teams. How well they've played on both ends of the ball - especially on offense making KAT a bigger distributor point along with Brunson. The rate at which they just easily go up twenty, and don't relent; it has been something truly unprecedented, and amazing to watch.

The Knicks fans earned this too. Yes - New Yorkers are by and large very wealthy, and certainly most of those attending games in MSG are just that, but the thousands of wackos celebrating outside the stadium each day, and all over the New York metro area, are not all this unified group of millionaires. There's real people - just remember that amazing Sidetalk video of random fans celebrating their season opener win over Boston in 2021 (the "bing bong" video). Those are the Knicks fans, the ones that put in 27 years, most of which were disasters, to get to this point.

There is of course a decent chance that the Knicks lose the finals. Either the Thunder or Spurs will be the favorite, barring even more injuries in that series. The Knicks have played better than either of those teams in teh playoffs, but the Knicks haven't had to beat a team nearly as good, nor even as good as whatever team the utlimate WCF winner would have beaten in the Western Conference Finals. The Knicks though are doing something special - more than lighting up the garden, they've been so good, and somehow so likeable, they are gaining the love of millions of non New Yorkers. They've been able to capture the basketball loving nation, and doing it by just being a damn good team, built through trades and personal growth, and all cresting at just the right point in time for this city.

The Lose / Lose & Win / Win Series, Pt. 2

Top-15 "Win-Win" Finals

15.) 2025 NBA Finals - Thunder over Pacers

It's weird how fickle opinions on teams change, because by this point now I hate the Thunder and want to see their downfall, but a year ago I was perfectly fine with them and was overjoyed with the Pacers (helps I was on a project in Indianapolis concurrently with that run). The fact the series itself was great helps, though I'll ignore the gut-punch of Halliburton's achilles tear. It was a refreshing small market finals to give the NBA brass heartburn as well, which is never a bad thing.

14.) 2009 NBA Finals - Lakers over Magic

It's weird that I have this here, but at this point I didn't hate the Lakers (never really did outright) and found that Magic team that would just bomb threes (relatively "bomb" for the time) and run Hedo as point forward and go four-out aroudn Dwight fascinating. Certainly like them more than the Cavs at that time (I was dumb, we were all dumb about LeBron). I just wish it was a better series, but I was absolutely on board for whoever won - especially after the Lakers rightly got trounced by Boston the year before, I was mentally ready to see Champion Kobe again.

13.) 2018 Stanley Cup Finals - Capitals over Knights

You would think I would find the 2018 Knights annoying, a team in their first year of existence making the Cup Finals. But then again, I've had my favorite team win the Cup - three times. So what do I care. Watching those miracle Knights was a joy. And the Capitals was obviously something I would root for to see Ovechkin win a ring. If anything, I was so behind wanting Ovie to a win a ring, that's the only reason why this isn't higher - because even if I would've found the Knights story cool had they actually done it with that rag-rag team (remember, the fact that we all expected them to be good because of the lottery rules is 100% revisionism - post expansion draft and trade chicanery they were still expected to be bad) that would've kept Ovie from winning one.

12.) Super Bowl LIX - Eagles over Chiefs

What makes this one work is the potential of a three-peat and Mahomes officially doing something Brady (and everyone else) couldn't do. Other than that bit, I was over the Chiefs, who stole that AFC Championship Game against Buffalo. But I digress - seeing Mahomes win a threepeat would've been cool, but seeing the Chiefs get choked out by one of the most dominant defensive performances was even better - I loved that Eagles defense of Fangio's and that team had a such graet swagger and got great revenge from the game two years prior (which, spoiler alert: is yet to come on the list) that it made it one of the rare, enjoyable Super Bowl blowouts.

11.) 2010 World Series - Giants over Rangers

There's mroe of the Giants to come, but what we had was a Giants team that had Hunter Pence (the first ex Astros to play in teh WS after escaping the depths of hell), a ton of other fun guys like Lincecum, and while they beat the Phillies with Oswalt - Roy himself had a fine NLCS. Anyway, the Rangers were super fun with teh Josh Hamilton of it all, and Nellie Cruz and their dominance over teh Yankees, adn Cliff Lee's cool-ness. Honestly, I'm regretting not having this higher up - probably would've been had the series itself been better.

10.) 2021 NBA Finals - Bucks over Suns

This is one of those that seems like a fever dream, even if the Bucks were hanging around the top for years, seeing them actually make the Finals was crazy, and seeing it be the Suns, the team that hadn't made the playoffs in 11 years, as the opponent was crazier. It was so refreshing to, coming off the back of either the Warriors or LeBron being in the finals each of the last ten seasons (and four times, of course, against each other). Those guys were long gone, and we just got two teams that were well built. Of course, the Suns had to fuck it all up by going all-in on KD, and the Bucks a bit the same on Dame, but at this one point in time, it was quite special.

9.) Super Bowl XLIII - Steelers over Cardinals

I know at the time people were annoyed at teh Cardinals being there - a 9-7 team that lost some games by embarrassing scores late in teh season, but I loved Warner, that offense and watching Fitzgerald's playoffs is a religious experience (only enhanced by the Super Bowl), so it was either them, or one of the great defenses ever finish the job. Even if I was sad it wasn't my Colts in teh game, the Steelers aren't to blame for that, went out and embarrassed the team that beat the Colts and swaggered their way to a title with one of my favorite defenses ever to watch. The context around the game (watchign it with a bunch of friends with us having Senior Cut Day the day after, so we all got lit during and after the game) only makes it better.

8.) Super Bowl XLVII - Ravens over 49ers

Lot of similarities to that last one - a great defense (two, in fact), and a team that beat my biggest enemy (with Baltimore's dominant 2nd half against New England) in a Super fun matchup. I ate up all teh Harbaugh v Harbaugh stuff. I ate up teh Kaepernick stuff, but more than that everything else about those 49ers, from their werid formations and use of Delanie Walkers. But hell, it was about Ed Reed and getting him his ring. I was definitely rooting for the Ravens, but would've been quite fun had the 49ers pulled it off. 

7 & 6.) Super Bowl LVII / LVIII - Chiefs over Eagles & 49ers

Similar stories here, as while I do want the Bills or Ravens to win eventually, I was also perfectly fine at this time with Mahomes continuing to just be awesome. 2022 was the real pinnacle, where after taht stunning loss to the Bengals, and losing Tyreek Hill, he had just an amazing MVP season and then went against that super fun Eagles team. You know who else was super fun? The 2023 49ers and their CMC/Purdy/Kittle/Aiyuk/Deebo offense. These were just amazing matchups and nirvana for a fan still getting over the scars of Brady making a win/win Super Bowl seem like an unattainable goal. It also helps that both fo these two games were both wonderful in their own right - special contests won by the Chiefs because Mahomes decided to play flawlessly in each 2nd half (an OT). Wonderful times that I do worry I'll never get back.

5.) 2015 World Series - Royals over Mets

It is still funny to me that the Mets went to the World Series 10 years ago. It was more funny that when by 2019 or so the Mets went back to being a disaster, it was literally foru years earlier, but that Mets team with their young, dominant pitching staff (DeGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey, Matz) was so damn cool, especially them undressing the Cubs in the NLCS. I've never been against the Mets and seeing them in teh World Series was fun. Seeing the Royals was even better. It is still ahrd to believe teh Royals went to the World Series two straight years. It was a mistake, I'm sure, but they were also so damn likable a team that had a flamethrowing bullpen, played great defense, and never struck out. I can still remember those guys, still remember the inside the park home run on the first pitch when they were batting, the late comebacks, Hosmer's audacious gamble to run home on that groundout. This was a magical series.

4.) 2015 Stanley Cup Final - Blackhawks over Lightning

Years ago, I called the Blackhawks the dynasty that was the easiest to root for. Now, none of us at the time new about all the Kyle Beach stuff, but I am writing this about how i felt at the time, and seeing them back in the Final, after a thrilling 7-game series against teh Ducks, against an even more likeable Lightning team coming off their own thrilling 7-game series against the Rangers, and this was a special matchup. It was the dynasty of the moment vs. the dynasty to come. The Stanley Cup vets against the triplets line (Johnson-Kucherov-Palat). It was those striking blue uniforms against the best uniform in the sport. It was all so good, and resulted in some really great hockey. It was the last ride for that Chicago dynasty, adn the start of an amazing nine years for the Lightning (three more Cup Final trips, two Cups, two other ECF losses).

3.) 2022 Stanley Cup Final - Avalanche over Lightning

You can probably copy paste nearly everything from the one prior and apply it here. The dynasty of the moment v the dynasty to come (the "to come" part hasn't rung true yet, but the 2026 Avs certianly look awesome). Add to it a team going for a threepeat, a team that turned on the resiliency in 2022 - the Game 7 win in Toronto, sweeping the Panthers, beating the Rangers twice in MSG, against a dominant Avs team (12-2 in teh playoffs entering the final) and the storylines wrote themselves and nearly all proved true. The Avs dominated Game 1, but you could make a credible argument the Lightning were the better team in Games 2-6, but who cares, we got hockey Nirvana - two loaded teams, healthy, dominant fighting against each other. Hockey was so damn good.

2.) Super Bowl LIV - Chiefs over 49ers (the first one)

The 2019 season was one of my favorite personal seasons as a fan, and it ended with two damn likable taems - a dominant offense against a dominant defense, two great coaches, and more than anythign two new teams. The Patriots had made the four of the last five Super Bowls (we had no way of knowing the Chiefs were about to do the same thing...). The 49ers came out of five years in the wilderness with a crazy fun, old-school (traditional 4 man font) defense. It was such a great matchup, tunred into a super well played game. Looking back, we didn't know how good we had it - darkly even more true when you realize the world was about to shut down five weeks later. This was the gourmet dinner right before the Titanic hit the Iceberg, and damn that dinner was great.

1.) 2014 World Series - Giants over Royals

It will be hard to top this. The Giants were such a fun team, despite this being potentially a third ring in five years. Why? Because no one really considered them a dynasty - they were far from the best team any of those years (that said, I do think people understate how good the 2010 and 2012 teams were). They were fresh off boucning the Cardinals in five in the most awesome way ("Travis Ishakawa.... Hits one to RIGHT!"). They had MadBum and Hunter and Fat Panda and so many more just dudes. ANd then you had the Royals, even more fun the team I extolled earlier when they would play the Mets the next year. They were so beautiful a breath of fresh air, something everyone kept doubting through to their incredible comeback in the Wild Card game and then 7=0 run through the AL Playoffs. The real reason this is #1 - it was a win/win down to the very last half inning - when we were either going to get MadBum having the greatest save in MLB history, or the Royals winning. Hell, it was a win-win when Alex Gordom hit that triple that maybe could've been a game-tying inside the park home run. It was drama, it was brilliant, adn it was eminenty enjoyable as a neutral from inning one to inning nine in Game 7.

The Lose / Lose & Win / Win Series, Pt. 1

During my strange series of my favorite groupings of champions, I talked a few times about winners who won in a series where I wouldn't have really minded either way - it was going to be a positive outcome that I was in favor no matter what. There were also a few that were the stark opposite, where I was going to be annoyed a depressed no matter the outcome. Well, in that post series I said I would do a ranking of those, and I am - starting from 2001 to now, we've seen 100 finals in the big-4 sports (stopping at this year's Super Bowl), so I wanted to detail the 10 most "lose-lose" series for me, the 15 most "win-win". Why more win-win: because, shockingly, there's been more of those. This exercise, just like the other one around ranking sets of annual winners, has shown me that in this narrow way of looking at who played in a sports final and who ultimately won it, I've actually had a pretty damn good run. 

The one thing I realized when putting that list together is basically none of them featured my favorite teams, and I've been blessed to see my favorite teams play a lot of finals in this period. I mean, not as many as if I was a Boston-based fan, but I've still done well, so in that vein I'll do a quick interlude in the middle just ranking all the series that one of my favorite teams (Raiders, Colts/Manning Broncos, Astros, Spurs, Devils) took part, starting from teh most "lose" potential to the least "lose" potential - e.g. the ones where I didn't really care too much if my team lost.

Top-10 "Lose-Lose" Series

10.) 2006 NBA Finals - Heat over Mavericks

Quick reminder, all of these are from the perspective I had of the two teams at the time. I grew to love Dirk, and even Wade, but man that wasn't the case back in 2006. This was probably my first year as an out and out Spurs fan, and the Mavs stole that series against them. The Heat also weren't the most likable. Add to that the thousands of free throws Wade was gifted. A sneaky lose-lose one that I didn't think of off the jump.

9 & 8.) 2008 & 2009 Stanley Cup Finals - Penguins v Red Wings (1-1)

The only positive I can state is that at least each split their series, but the outcomes aren't supposed to matter here. The Red Wings were annoying in their boring, brilliance - something of a NHL version of the Patriots. Real ones know that comparison is perfect. The Penguins were annoying because of Crosby. It is so funny ranking these (and then looking ahead to my win-win) list and seeing how my opinions of all-time greats changes from annoyance early to loving respect later. Same happened with Crosby, but this was very much not the case at this point. This was probably my nadir has a hockey fan. 

7.) 2012 NBA Finals - Heat over Thunder

This was the tail end of me hating LeBron and the Heatles. I grew up by the next year (see my "Acceptable Loss" column after they beat the Spurs. So - the Heat side is obvious. Why disliking the Thunder? Because they had the audacity to run the Spurs off the court winning four straight after being down 0-2, after the Sprus had won 20 straight games playing a brand of offense that was even better than the 2014 Spurs. That was a shock to the system, adn then I had to find myself I guess hoping LeBron won?

6.) 2018 NBA Finals - Warriors over Cavaliers

This was less so lose-lose on the actual matchup, but my interest in teh sport. No one wanted this fourth straight matchup. It got even worse when the Cavs blew game one. I like LeBron at this point, but I knew they had no shot. To be honest, this probably doesn't qualify because I would've been ecstatic had the Cavs won, but it was so obvious they had no shot (even more than the year earlier) which is why I kind of hated this one. 

5.) Super Bowl XXXIX - Patriots over Eagles

It's hilarious how much my opinion of the Eagles changed in the thirteen years from this to the Foles upset, but it was probably due to being in middle school with a lot of Eagles fans, when my Raiders were flailing and my Colts got embarrassed by the Pats that I was faced with this dilemma. Either see classmates by happy (the worst!) or the Pats win again. Overtime I would come to begrudgingly respect the 2001-2004 Patriots (certainly more than the 2014-2018 ones) but at the time this was a horror show.

4.) 2018 World Series - Red Sox over Dodgers

You may say this reveals a lot about me, but all my top-4 feature at least one Boston team. But in a way that's somewhat obvious. Fuck that city being good at every sport during this time period. Anyway, you would think after I watched the Dodgers lose to my Astros in heartbreaking fashion a year earlier I would ahve a soft spot for them? Well, no - I didn't. Screw them (except for Kershaw). And this dumb-ass Red Sox team that bullshited their way in 108 wins and beating my Astros despite being outhit in the World Series. Out of any on this list, this is probably where there is still a big gap in outcomes, but yeah I wasn't happy this October.

3.) 2022 NBA Finals - Warriors over Celtics

I've never like the J&J Celtics - thso whole damn time, from them making the 2017-18 ECF's purely because the East was hot garbage, to this, to of course their win two years later. They won a watered down East made easier because Embiid broke his face against Miami (granted, they probably beat the 76ers anyway). Well, I couldn't really root hard against them because I was so damn annoyed the Warriors were back. We all thought we were done with them, and in a more macro sense, we were, as they resumed being playoff fodder a year later, but really they had to take advantage of one of the weakest West years, with a paper-thin #1 seed in Phoenix, a Nuggets team that lost Jamal Murray for the season, and the Grizzlies being their biggest competition of all things. I get mad just writing about this one knowing we were trapped in hell regardless the outcome. Of course, there are two even worse....

2.) 2013 World Series - Red Sox over Cardinals

Hard to top this, though of course one thing does. Combine a Red Sox team that decided to randomly win near 100 games and employ a whole lot of annoying as fuck people play a Cardinals team that was their true NL counterpart, and of course be the Cardinals. At this point, the Astros were in just year two of their AL existence, so I was definitely more committed to hating my NL Central rivals (still am, to be honest). What's more annoying is that despite the series being somewhat entertaining in a vaccuum (i.e. to a neutral), for me it was brutal because you had things like the Cardinals winning ona  catchers interference, adn the Red Sox winning by random fucks hitting Grand Slams. Just all time nonsense on both sides.

1.) Super Bowl XLIX - Patriots over Seahawks

I can't even imagine what can top this, especially when you actually add the outcome on top of it. It's weird that the Butler INT wasn't some all time gut-punch play given my absolute hatred for the Patriots, and the fact that let them finally win another Super Bowl, but it is because I absolutely disliked the LOB Seahawks. I don't really know why (and truthfully, it isn't solely because they whooped Peyton the year earlier), especially given I've flocked quite naturally to every other great defense over the years, including last year's Seahawks. But the LOB never did it for me, and they absolutely stole the NFC Title Game, and they couldn't do the decency of beating Brady - even if I don't know how happy I would've been had they. Truthfully, I've never enjoyed a Super Bowl from start to finish less, and never been more indifferent to a world-changing play like the Butler pick. This was the perfect storm of hatred all around that will probably never be topped.

Ranking of Finals where one of My Teams was Involved Ranked from most "Lose" potential to Least

Tier I - I Cared A Lot

17.) 2003 Stanley Cup Final - Devils over Mighty Ducks

The 2003 Devils were probably the first team I followed with truly day to day passion and they rewarded me by going to the Cup Final, including a dramatic 7-game win in the ECF over a great Ottawa team. I would've been catatonic had they blown it to a mostly shit Ducks team apart from their goalie, especially had they lost Game 7. Crisis so much averted.

16.) Super Bowl XLI - Colts over Bears

It's funny because in isolation I liked that Bears team - great defense, and of course Devin Hester. But man, if the Colts lost the Super Bowl after slaying the Patriots dragon I would've cried myself to sleep for days. And man, after Hester ran back that kickoff and then Peyton threw a pick.... thankfully they figured their shit out.

15.) Super Bowl XLIV - Saints over Colts

Here's the weird thing, I loved the Saints story all year, but I've never followed a team more during a season than the 2009 Colts. My world would've been so much different had that Colts team won (probably hyperbole... their loss actually swore me off sports for a bit and resulted in way better grades the subsequent semester...). But my life as a football fan becomes way different if Peyton just wins ring #2 then and there.

14.) 2022 World Series - Astros over Phillies

This is the baseball version of the one above, but luckily the result worked out. That 2022 Astros team was awesome - 107 wins, clear best team in the sport. Of course, they lost with a similar pedigree in 2019. They also lost in 2021. They also still ahd the trashcan stuff. Had they lost again I don't know what I would've done, despite me really liking that Phillies team.

13.) 2013 NBA Finals - Heat over Spurs

Hey, it's the NBA version of the above (although I think my Heat appreciation was more due to this series than coming into it). The Spurs finally made it back to the finals and played three exquisite games in their wins, but the Heat just did that shit. 

Tier II - I Slightly Cared

12.) Super Bowl XLVII - Seahawks over Broncos

Seeing Peyton have that season and make it back to the Super Bowl was a win. Sure, I would've obviously been way happier had he finished the job, but it was cool just seeing him healthy and doing it again and spanking the Pats in the title game. Also it helps probably that the game was basically over after one snap,

11.) 2014 NBA Finals - Spurs over Heat

The respect I gained for the Heat, and moreso Lebron, after 2013 paid off here. Yes, seeing the Spurs unleash those games was an all time sports memory, but had they lost again I wouldn't have been heartbroken. Sad, for sure, but truly I was content, especially after their fairly epic win over the Thunder.

10.) Super Bowl XXXVII - Buccaneers over Raiders

The first football team I followed week to week was the 2002 Raiders and they paid off that level of attention by making the Super Bowl. They then got spanked, but I think even then I had a great deal of respect for the Buccaneers and that defense and the way they undressed the Eagles a week earlier. If there was a team to beat my Raiders, I was kind of glad it was Philadelphia I guess.

9.) 2019 World Series - Nationals over Astros

It was heartbreaking to lose Game 7, especially the way they did, especially having to follow it on ESPN.com on a plane to Mumbai. In fact, the reason I was detached from actually watching it helps in this case, because had I been watching it probably hurts more - but I liked Washington and it was fun to see the Astros back in the series, win or lose. And i promise, the fact the sign stealing scandal broke a few weeks later has nothing to do with this,

8.) 2007 NBA Finals - Spurs over Cavaliers

I honestly don't know how to rank this one because I never expected for a second the Spurs would lose, and then they proceeded to sweep the Cavs. I guess in tehory had the Cavs somehow won I would've been devastated but that had a truly 0% chance of happening. 

7.) 2001 Stanley Cup Finals - Avalanche over Devils

It's funny because the 2001 Devils were a juggernaut of their era if you go by regular season stats. They were also the defending champs. However, the Avalanche were also amazing and I was too young to have any reason to hate them. And they wildly outplayed the Devils in that series. And I remember liking the Ray Borque story, even if I had no real connection to his past. This is probably too long ago to really talk about with any real certainty, but whatever.

6.) 2005 World Series - White Sox over Astros

You know why I know this one didn't scar me? Because the Astros lost the closest sweep ever - losing on a walkoff, an 18-inning game, a 1-0 game, and another where they lost by two. But still, I didn't care because we beat the damn Cardinals, I saw Roy Oswalt win NLCS MVP and saw my team in a World Series and lost to a team I didn't have any ill will for. Bonus points 21-years later that the current Pope watched game 1 of the World Series from the damn stands.

Tier III - I Cared Way Less than you would Think

5.) 2005 NBA Finals - Spurs over Pistons

At this point I wasn't a fuill on Spurs fan, so I wondered about even ranking this one (see me not putting the 2003 Spurs on this), but I was, and I loved that defensive battle of a series. I liked Detroit, mostly for embarrassing the Lakers the year earlier. It was a series where I would've been fine with either outcome.

4.) 2017 World Series - Astros over Dodgers

I had a lot of respect for the Dodgers, and for Kershaw, at this point. I honestly would've been ok losing to them - respecting the 2017 Dodgers as a great team, as were my Astros. I would've felt this way had the Dodgers won Game 7 - because by that point I had least watched my team win two epics of all time in Game 2 and Game 5. That series was a net positive for me no matter the outcome.

3.) Super Bowl 50 - Broncos over Panthers

It's funny because coming in I knew, like we all did, it was probably Peyton's last game, but even if he won he wasnt going to get worldwide credit because he was shit by then. And man did I love those 2015 Panthers, one of my favorite single year teams to watch. In a very perverse way, I kind of wish the Panthers won - not really because I do still love the fact Peyton got his second ring, but man was that Panthers team cool.

2.) 2021 World Series - Braves over Astros

The 2021 Astros were not a great team like the 2017, 2019 and 2022 vintages. They were the best team in the AL though, and more importantly, they beat the REd Sox in the ALCS, avenging the 2018 loss, and more so by embarrassing them in games 4-5-6 to close it out. That was my World Series to some degree, as the Braves by this point were probably just better, and they showed it. I also have some Braves fans in my life that I love so that wasn't too bad.

1.) 2012 Stanley Cup Final - Kings over Devils

This is the one time I can truly say I didn't at all care if my team won or lost. We won already because we beat the Flyers (embarrassed them really) then beat the Rangers (more important than winning a Cup) and I saw a 40=year old Brodeur have one last amazing ride. I don't care that the Kings were a bit annoying and I found the story of an 8-seed winning the Cup a bit silly, I don't care. I don't even care despite the Devils losing games 1-2 in OT, and then having a terrible 5-min major called against them in Game 6, in which the Kings scored three goals. I don't care about any of that - I was just happy the Devils were there. If only I can have the same approach to all seasons involving my team.

My Favorite Restaurants: Top 50 Tasting Menus, Pt. 3 (#13 - #1)

13.) Salon  (Cape Town - 2024)

One of my only real regrets through all my trips to Cape Town is taht I never made it to The Test Kitchen, which for years was the premier single restaurant in Cape Town. Bookings were frighteningly tough. Then Luke Dale Roberts closed it during Covid, but I guess got the itch back to open a fine dining spot. It was incredible, a culinary tour through all the spots the Chef Roberts has worked or taken inspiration from. Brilliant South African dishes to be sure, but also a foie gras take on black forest cake, a brilliant "tamale" dish featuring the most Mexican of flavor profiles, to a brilliant play on Duck l'Orange, to authentic Korean to end it. It was all brilliant. In isolation, maybe you would worry about how successfully a place could pull off all these different cuisines, but apparently Mr. Luke Dale Roberts is a talented, worldly man - and after going to Salon, if anything I rue not having gone to The Test Kitchen even more.

12.) Pujol  (Mexico City - 2018)

Pujol is Mexico City's best or 2nd best restaurant, going back and forth with Quintonil (haven't been). It was the first on this list to be featured on Chef's Table with chef/owner Enrique Olvera. On the downside, there were only six listed courses which expanded to eight with a few extras thrown in. On the plus side, each was immaculate, from the famous baby-corn coated in a sauce made from ants, to a perfectly cooked octopus, to another perfectly cooked dish with lamb chops and a green mole. Even the desserts with their mango dessert and best churro you will ever have were both excellent. But of course, one cannot talk about Pujol without talking about the Mole Madre dish, their centerpiece, which is just a plate with two concentric circles of dark and light mole, with nopal tortillas. It seems crazy to serve just that as effectively the main course - but it is truly unbelievable. It is accepted people will go as far to lick the last drop of mole off the plate. It truly was a showstopper of a dish that elevates a bunch of other really great dishes.

11.) I Pupi  (Sicily - 2019)

This was the second tasting course meal we had in our trip to Italy in 2019, and while the first one - Imago in Rome - was a big disappointment, the seafood-forward I Pupi in Bagheria, Sicily (about 30 min away from Palermo) was incredible. Their first course of a random assortment of small bites was inspired, each being seafood forward. The second plate which was a platter with six nigiri on it with six different salts to add on top was divine, and while not 'Italian' in any way was just an insane dish. The rest of the meal got more Italian, but still small, focused, refine, seafood plates, from a zuchinni noodle wrapped fish, to an incredible soup, to lamb chops (the only meat). Each dish was so well put together, alternating from amazing small bites to dishes that approached the size of a normal restaurant starter, to everything in between. This was just a fabulous meal and such a nice comeback after being disappointed with Imago earlier in that trip.

10.) Merito  (Lima - 2025)

The weird thing is when you look up Merito, they talk about the fact the head chef is from Venezuela. I'm sure he is, and that cuising ie present here, but realistically if you just said "hey, here's a Central protege going at it on his own!" you would imagine what Merito is, and it blows you away further, It has the fun of Central, the ridiculously inventive use of various tubers, the sharpness of tis colors, and so much more. It has the taste of it too. Merito is such a perfect place, a gold standard in its city, but new enough it gets to invejnt the worlds coolest desert because it doesn't yet have to live up to Maido's or Central's reputation (granted those two are still to come...). Merito is probably in its perfect phase right now, just amazing enough to get recongized, but still undergroudn enough that it can experiment with things like a course that was basically fish and chips - yeah, better fish and chips than you've ever had.

9.) Quintonil  (Mexico City - 2026)

I can't remember when I first made the Quintonil booking, but it is a place that takes a 50% deposit that is non-refundable, but you can shift dates. I shifted I think three times, and finally made it in May, 2026, and it was worth the wait. It is worth the hype, it is the best meal I've had in a food mecca. Quintonil found a perfect balance between some incredible, refined, stunning dishes with showcasing the more homestyle but brilliant flavors of Mexico. From their first little bites, to their incredible use of bugs (in four courses) to some outlandish use of fish and native plants for sauces. Rarely been to a place where the sauces (not all are moles...) were so on point. It was a coordinated celebration of Mexico. The only thing keeping it from being slightly higher is everything above it had at least 12 courses. Quintonil was only 10. Fine margins, but still a special place.    

8.) Tresind  (Dubai  -  2025)

The best Indian restaurant I've been to is still to come, but while that one starts with Indian flavors and goes all fusiony with it at tiems (in the best way), Tresind starts with Indian flavors and just elevates and executes the shit out of them - from incredible takes on pani pure, to fish, to lamb curry, to everything else, Tresind executes in perfection - similar to any 3 star Michelin place. Not that it doesn't take risks, but there is such a focus on exacting preparations, visuals where there are a few dishes that look slightly better on the plate than they taste - in that they look like a 10/10 but taste like a 9/10. Those are the minority of dishes across their 15 course menu. Tresind is at the end of the day probably the best pure Indian restaurant in teh world - it could maybe just stand to take a few more risks.

8.) Mingles  (Seoul - 2022)

Mingles is Seoul's top ranked restaurant, and after going I can see why. It was a classic tasting menu shop, with sharp clarity on its menu, its decor, its everything. It also had a really nice 'Korean Liquor' pairing along with the wine pairing, something I took that got me to taste various different Korean localized liquors. The meal itself was great, with some of the best, most interesting dishes I've had, such as a great king-crab two ways dish, a brilliant take on surf & turf (pork & squid stuffed oyster, along with a braised beef cube), to an incredible lamb three ways dish as the primary main. The vegetable dishes were also spectacular, such as a corn soup dish that opened my eyes to just how sweet corn can be. Mingles was a special restaurant showcasing the best of modern Korean cuisine.\

6.) Borago  (Santiago - 2024)

Central gets all the notoriety from showcasing native food and different altitudes and all that stuff. Deservedly so - it is still to come. But the Chilean version, to some degree, is nearly as good. Rodolfo Guzman's restaurant was the highlight of my trip to Santiago, with some staggering dishes. From a paper scallop with a bright blue algae sauce, to a staggering monkfish and lobster cooked in seaweed. There were incredible small bites to start, like a little makeshift bumblebee of honey and a Chilean corn. And of course that final dish, that Patagonian lamb - just a piece of lamb, roasted over a fire for 24 hours. Much like say it takes balls for Enrique Olvera to serve mole as the main dish at Pujol, so too is it here serving a piece of lamb with no sauce, no sides. Nothing - and it was truly perfect. As was Borago more or less as a whole.

5.) Maido  (Lima - 2016, 2022)

Maido will always have a soft spot for me as it was the first tasting menu spot I went to, at a time where I didn't really know just how well reputed it was. We went for lunch, unable to get a dinner reservation but the menu is the same either way. It is a japanese-peruvian kaiseke meal that is just perfectly designed, executed, presented and crafted. 13 courses, all seafood based, all incredible, from various nigiris, to incredible takes on ceviche, to a choripan of fish & octopus sausage, to a very complicated but inredible soup decanted in front of you. Even the deserts of sea urchin and what they call the 'reef' which is a giant edible reef rock, are wild. I'm sure there are places in Japan that are just as good and more 'authentic', but this is my favorite take on Japanese cuisine ever. Just now I remember being mesmerized at each dish, on how it looked when it was brought out, on the complexity of the way it is described and of course on how it tasted. This, and to be fair the two above it, are peerless for me in the sense that I have zero idea how to recreate any of these dishes. They are simple while being complex, each ingredient, each little piece just so perfect. I hope to go Lima's other world reknowned restaurant Central at some point (maybe even this year, to which I will have to likely re-write this list to add it in), but if we could only go to one premier spot last time, Maido was a perfect pick.

4.) Gaggan Anand  (Bangkok - 2022)

Because of many reasons, I'm going to rank my 2nd trip to a Gaggan Anand restaurant separately from the first one. One reason is it technically is a different restaurant, in a different space. Another is the experience was different - this is a restaurant where he serves just at a chef's table to a group of 14 people. And the biggest difference was Gaggan Anand himself was present, was there to talk to the patrons, the entire thing being equally an experience along with the food. The food was still great, with some of the most inventive dishes I've ever had with insane preparations that he explained so well. It still had all the measure of excitement, like random things that tasted like tom yum soup, or charcoal chicken balls or a dried paper lightly filled that tasted just like hummus. It was classic Gaggan, classic modern cooking, and the only restaurant on this list whre the Chef was there to personally chat with and serve to the customers. The old restaurant is higher up the lsit because at the end I think the food was even better, but my second trip to a Gaggan was about as good as I could have imagined.

3.) Azurmendi  (Bilbao - 2021)

Azurmendi came as close as any meal I've had to unseating what might be a lifetime pick at #1. The basque restaurant certainly met it for downright creativity and presentation. From the picnic basket of small bites, to the greenhouse where they were literally picking up roses from a garden bed before you realized it was sorbet, to of course each incredible bite at the table. All in all they technically had 27 dishes, almost all of which were excellent in their design, freshness, preparation and ultimately taste. My favorites of the small bites were the cod fish brioche and the truffle meringue, just incredible little bites. The daiquiri rose was incredible, from presentation to taste. The asparagurus three ways and play on fish taco were divine. The tempura oyster was maybe the best bite I've ever had, and the ending dishes of cod tart and iberico pork were just sublime. They have a rich tapestry to which to create from local produce and Iberian meats and fishes, but Eneko Atxa's brilliant mind puts it to incredible use.

2.) Central  (Lima - 2022)

Very likely next year Central will be named the best restaurant in the wrold by San Pellegrino in their World's Best 50 list. It is well deserved (the restaurant ranked above it for me has reached similar heights on the same list). The dishes are both uniformly incredibly tasty, and ridiculously inventive. As shown on his turn on Chef's Table, what chef Virgilio Martinez and his team create are art pieces, they're stunning, they're beautiful, they look as good as any dishes I've had, and they were all very good. From dishes made out of random amazonian vegetables, to amazonian fish, to incredibly weird lattice things, to some of the most inventive desserts I've had, including a panoply of peruvian chocolate as the final dish. The best part of the restaurant is how focused the theme is, with showcasing hte beauty of Peru across elevations and its various weird ingredients. It may not have been as many courses as it was in its height pre-covid (I believe 18, now down to 14) but I can only imagine what the four extra would have been.

1.) Gaggan  (Bangkok - 2019)

I don't know if any restaurant will ever top Gaggan, which had so much hype entering in, having seen it on Chef's Table, see it rise up the world rankings, and it being Indian focused. I was expecting a lot, and it somehow overdelivrered. The 25 course menu was just perfect from the start of audacious versions of famous Indian street food (still unsure how my little bit of what looked like a cracker with foam and curry leaf tasted like idli sambar), to the mains of prawn balchao, decronstructed curries, a perfect lamb leg, and multiple Japanese dishes during Gaggan's Japanese phase. The setting, sitting at the chef's table watching his sous chef's go to work, with Gaggan's noted love of Heavy Metal ringing through the speakers, was a delight. IT was so well paced, 25 dishes of 3:30, never once making you feel like you're being rushed through each delectable dish. It is astounding to think this is what is possible with Indian food, that this is how good a menu can be even if you limit yourself to just five meat courses in the 25, and how great an atmosphere, a perspective, a cuisine and a legendary chef can concoct together.