I copied the quote over to ChatGPT and asked it "#1- Are you able to find the source? #2- How does travel for NBA champions since that 2015 Warriors team compare? #3- Which NBA champion travelled the most miles ever?"
The answers:
Short answers
- Source of your forum quote: that paragraph is reproducing numbers published from NBAsavant’s “Travel Schedule Map” (Daren Willman) and echoed by outlets such as Quartz and Forbes at the time. The NBAsavant page is the canonical source for those per-team season totals. NBASavant+2Quartz+2
- How champions’ travel compares since the 2015 Warriors season: there is no single trend (champions do not all cluster at one end). Travel totals are dominated by geography and schedule quirks (West Coast clubs normally log the most miles). Some champions (Warriors seasons) were in the ~50–54k-mile range; others (Raptors, some East teams) were in the high-30k to low-40k range. In short: champions’ regular-season travel totals vary a lot — geography + specific schedule design (homestands, long road trips, international legs) explain most of the variation. (Sources and example season numbers below.) NBASavant+1
- Which NBA champion travelled the most (regular season) in the public record?
- The 2016–17 Golden State Warriors are the best-documented leader among champion seasons: 54,436 miles (published on the Warriors’ schedule breakdown page). That is the largest single-season regular-season total I could verify in public team/NBAsavant reporting for a champion. NBA
- The Warriors’ 2015–16 season is also commonly quoted (NBAsavant) at 53,575 miles, and was widely reported at the time — so the 2015–17 Warriors seasons are the two top champion-era high-travel examples. NBASavant+1
Evidence table (regular-season miles — best publicly-published figures I could verify)
Notes on the table: these are
regular-season schedule totals (airport-to-airport style totals as reported by NBAsavant / team schedule pages / beat reporting). “Source” links are the pages that publish or quote the number; where I couldn’t find a clean single-number from both NBAsavant
and ChartingHoops in the quick pull, I put the best available published figure and noted that the alternate source needs a direct pull. If you want, I will fetch every season from both NBAsavant and ChartingHoops and return a strict side-by-side (I can do that next).
Champion season | Champion | Best verified regular-season miles (published) | Source |
---|
2014–15 | Golden State Warriors | (no clean single-number located in quick pass) — NBAsavant has season maps; ESPN reporting cites other high totals that year (eg. Portland very high). | NBAsavant / ESPN (see NBAsavant map). NBASavant+1 |
2015–16 | Cleveland Cavaliers (champions) | 35,055 miles (NBAsavant — widely quoted). | NBAsavant travel map (published totals). NBASavant |
2016–17 | Golden State Warriors | 54,436 miles (team schedule breakdown / Warriors site). — largest verified champion-season total I found. | Warriors schedule breakdown (team site). NBA |
2017–18 | Golden State Warriors | 50,310 miles (team schedule breakdown / Warriors site). | Warriors schedule breakdown (team site). NBA |
2018–19 | Toronto Raptors | ~39,000–40,000 miles — local beat reporting and Raptors schedule writeups report “just under 40,000 miles.” (team/beat reporting phrasing.) | Raptors schedule coverage / beat (Ed Kupfer / RaptorsHQ summary). Raptors HQ |
2019–20 | Los Angeles Lakers | (no single, clean published total located in quick pass) — many schedule writeups exist; NBAsavant / ChartingHoops have season maps and will have the number. | (NBAsavant / team schedule pages). NBASavant |
2020–21 | Milwaukee Bucks | (no single, clean published total located in quick pass) — pandemic schedule changes make direct comparisons tricky; the Bucks’ schedule pages and NBAsavant/ChartingHoops have season totals. | (team / NBAsavant / ChartingHoops). Wikipedia+1 |
2021–22 | Golden State Warriors | ~50,000 miles (team estimate reported in schedule coverage) — team reporting put this near ~50k. | Warriors schedule coverage / team reporting. NBA |
2022–23 | Denver Nuggets | ~50,000 miles (team/beat reporting said roughly 50k) — team schedule writeups cited ~50k. | Nuggets schedule reporting / beat coverage. ESPN.com |
2023–24 | Boston Celtics | ~42,000 miles (team estimate reported in coverage) — beat/team coverage reported a ~42k figure. | Celtics schedule writeups / beat reporting. Wikipedia |
2024–25 | Oklahoma City Thunder | (no single, clean published total located in quick pass) — schedule released; NBAsavant/ChartingHoops will have exact totals. | (schedule pages / NBAsavant / ChartingHoops). |