The NBA title is the hardest title in Major sports to win.

SaintJ said

So yes, to me it is fairly clear that the NBA playoff system is the one most likely to produce a champion that is a deserving team based on its regular season play, and thus the hardest to win.

The NFL is a clear second, and baseball (hot pitchers) and hockey (hot goalie) are much, much more likely to make the regular season meaningless.

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So, using this argument, why have playoffs at all if we're concerned about making sure that a team with quality regular season play can get a championship? The 2007 Giants and 2005 Steelers don't like that idea.

If a team is good enough to squeak in to the playoffs in any sport, they are worthy of the championship, IMO. There are too many factors to put into play, maybe they started out slow, and really came on in the last half or third of the season. If this team just barely gets in, are they not deserving?

I view the regular seasons in professional sports as sort of a round robin to gain position for the real season, the post season.