The Wednesday Wizengamot has been absent from our content generation recently, through no fault of its own, but we bring it back today to discuss a term that gets thrown around a lot in sports commentary: dynasty. To quote Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Indeed, sports talking heads fling the word around so loosely these days. Doh!

We’re here to set the record straight today.

Here is the primary dictionary definition, for starters: “a sequence of rulers from the same family, stock, or group.” The key word here is “sequence”—and sequence is interrupted by the absence of the same family, stock, or group … or in sports terms, team. Thus, unless a team wins multiple championships in a sequence, it is not a dynasty—by definition. We hate to pick on the obvious, but let’s look at the San Francisco Giants.

The cheating organization won three World Series in five seasons, but not only did they never win consecutive titles, the Giants didn’t even make the postseason in sequential seasons. Thus, that is not a dynasty by any definition, even if some of the players on the three championship teams over that five-year stretch were consistent contributors, etc., to the team’s success. So, there was no MLB dynasty in the City.

However, the Golden State Warriors did win back-to-back titles once (2017-2018), thus that stretch of success can be considered a dynasty—perhaps along with the whole 2015-2019 period when the team appeared in five consecutive NBA Finals, winning three of them (2015). There is consistency there, not only winning sequential titles but in playoff appearances as well, with serious success. Thus, an NBA dynasty!

We thought about this with the Los Angeles Dodgers winning consecutive World Series, becoming the first team since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees to achieve the feat. That makes three titles in six seasons for the franchise, including the repeat efforts in 2024-2025. So, like the Warriors, we can consider this 2020-2025 era for the L.A. baseball organization as an extended dynasty now—and only now, thanks to 2025.

What about an NFL example? Let’s look at the cheating New England Patriots. The franchise won six Super Bowls between 2001–2018, but they won consecutive titles only once (2003-2004), and there was a 10-season gap between the third (2004) and fourth (2014) championships. Thus, the only period of the team’s success that truly qualifies as a dynasty is the 2001-2004 stretch, when the Patriots won three Super Bowls. Capisce?

To use another football situation, the Kansas City Chiefs have appeared in seven straight AFC Championship games, winning the Super Bowl three times in that span (2019, 2022-2023) and losing it twice as well (2020, 2024). Like the Warriors and the Dodgers above, this qualifies as an extended dynasty due to the back-to-back titles combined with the sustained level of deep-playoff success as well. It’s easy.

We don’t need to get into the NHL right now, but just this decade, we’ve seen both the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020-2021) and the Florida Panthers (2024-2025) win consecutive Stanley Cups. Yet even though the Chicago Blackhawks won three hockey championships in a six-year span (2010-2015), the team never won back-to-back titles, so that is not a dynasty. We think the various examples here are clear and distinct.

Thus, think before you throw this term around so casually, as you want to be accurate in diction, always.