This year, I sporadically updated the NBA Heavyweight Championship sidebar over there on the right. As I note, I blatantly stole the idea from Ken Arneson. He tracks the Heavyweight Championship in baseball.

This year, the Heavyweight of the Year award (for the best record in championship bouts) goes to the team that also had the best record overall, the Dallas Mavericks.

The Utah Jazz wound up holding the belt at the end of the year, beating the Rockets to take it, which, happily, sets up a first-round playoff matchup between the two teams. The belt will not be in question, however, as the Jazz are immediately stripped of the championship upon the start of the playoffs: the belt goes to the team that also takes home the trophy in June.

I also have a further award to hand out: The Wussy Trophy, which goes to a team that manages to avoid entering any championship bouts during the year. This year there are two Wussy Trophies, one to (oddly) the Detroit Pistons and the other to the Charlotte Bobcats.

On the other side, the Toughman Trophy goes to the Utah Jazz, for fighting with the belt on the line an astounding seventeen times, nearly 20% of their overall schedule.