Winning in a hurry: Valkyries top list of 5 fastest expansion teams to win championships

Milwaukee Bucks

Season No.: 3 (1971)

How it won: A coin flip.

Ahead of the 1969 NBA Draft, league commissioner J. Walter Kennedy flipped a coin to decide who'd receive the No. 1 pick between the Bucks and Phoenix Suns, two fledgling franchises with eyes on UCLA center Lew Alcindor, who legally changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 after leading the Milwaukee to its first NBA championship.

What happened after: Milwaukee waited 50 years for title No. 2 in 2021, when two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks back from a 0-2 Finals deficit against the Suns, scoring 50 points in the close-out Game 6 win.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Season No.: 4 (2001)

How it got here: Elite pitching.

Arizona planted the seeds for its 2001 World Series triumph when signing starting pitcher Randy Johnson as a free agent in December 1998. Two years later, the Diamondbacks acquired veteran Curt Schilling from the Philadelphia Phillies ahead of the trade deadline. The duo proved lethal together, particularly during Arizona's title run in the postseason, combining for a 1.31 earned run average with 103 strikeouts in 89 2/3 innings across 12 appearances (11 starts).

What happened after: The Diamondbacks improved by six games the following season, but a rough start by Johnson in Game 1 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals set the tone for a sweep. Arizona made the postseason only three times over the next 20 seasons (2003-22) before returning to the World Series in 2023, losing to the Texas Rangers in five games.

Florida Marlins

Season No.: 5 (1997)

How it won: A walk-off for the ages.

Marlins shortstop Edgar Renteria became a World Series legend when he drove in Craig Counsell in the bottom of the 11th of Game 7 in the 1997 Fall Classic. The Marlins had never qualified for the postseason previously, prompting a free-agent splurge in December 1996, when the front office signed six players, including Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla and Alex Fernandez, to contracts worth $89.075 million ($191.3M when adjusted for inflation) over a three-week span.

"If you want to acquire talent, you're going to have to spend money," then-general manager Dave Dombrowski said amid the spending spree. "We are fortunate our owner let us do that."

What happened after: Owner H. Wayne Huizenga got cheap. Following the World Series win, he claimed $34 million in losses for the 1997 season, and when that didn't convince Miami leaders to fund a stadium project, he stripped the Marlins for parts, leaving the team with a mere $13 million payroll and a 54-108 record in 1998, the worst in franchise history.

Under different ownership in 2003, Florida stunned the Yankees to claim a second World Series title behind heroics from one-year rental Ivan Rodriguez, a rookie Miguel Cabrera, who led the team with four playoff home runs, and ace Josh Beckett, but that was the franchise's last highlight. Since 2004, the Marlins have only reached the postseason twice while producing the fourth-worst win percentage (.460) in the majors.

Vegas Golden Knights

Season No.: 6 (2023)

How it won: The misfits got redemption.

Vegas ended its inaugural season in the Stanley Cup Final, but it would be another five years before the Golden Knights clinched their first title with a 9-3 win over the Florida Panthers in the decisive Game 5, started by a band of "Golden Misfits."

Forwards William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and defensemen Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore, members of the first Vegas squad affectionately dubbed "misfits" by former teammate James Neal, played substantial roles in the title quest, as NHL.com noted at the time, including in Game 5. Marchessault received the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the playoff MVP, while Smith, Karlsson and Theodore combined for 44 points during the run.

"They call 'em the misfits," Jack Eichel, then in his second season with the Golden Knights, said after the Stanley Cup clincher. "Those are the guys... They built this culture. So proud to be part of it."

What happened after: Vegas hasn't gone away. It's reached the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final last season, losing a sensational six-game series to the Carolina Hurricanes. At 9-4-1 and first in the Pacific Division through 14 games in 2026-27, the Golden Knights are an early contender to add title No. 2 next June.