Certainly players make sports interesting. However, teams are what captivate the attention of cities, states and countries. Every decade has defining teams, this past ten year period is no exception.

Los Angeles Lakers
The LA gang has taken 4 of the last 10 NBA titles home to Los Angeles. They have the best player of the past decade in Kobe Bryant. From 2000 to 2003 LA was the home the the most dominant, and later most dysfunctional, duo in basketball when Shaq joined forces with Kobe. To put the cherry on top, Kobe led a new look team back to the championship just this past year.

San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan and the Spurs have taken 3 of the last 10 NBA titles down. That is a loud statistic but this team might be the quietest team on this list. They definitely go under the radar, mainly because that is the personality of the majority of the teams stars. The one mainstream storyline generated from this team would have to be Eva Longoria and Tony Parker.

New England Patriots
Maybe the most successful team of the past ten years. They have 3 Super Bowl wins and made an appearance in another bowl. We can throw in a perfect regular season in addition. On top of all the success you have one of the most polarizing coaches in the history of the NFL and maybe the most mainstream quarterback since Broadway Joe Namath. Tom Brady has epitomized the crossover from sports world to main street. He has roped up international supermodel Giselle and graced every single magazine cover known to mankind.

Pittsburgh Steelers
The steel-curtain, maybe not but they have taken 2 of the last 4 Super Bowls. Quarterback Big Ben is also in the midst of a high profile civil suit stemming from rape allegations. Nothing captures America’s attention quite like a nice rape-case; just ask Kobe.

Boston Red Sox
Need we mention a curse here? The Red Sox took home 2 world series trophies this decade. The biggest story in the history of baseball was altered, finally. An ending was written in the great curse of the Babe. Fittingly the team to put a fork in such old-school baseball lore called themselves “the idiots”. You can’t write this stuff.

New York Yankees
Unfortunately for the Sox fans the Yankees matched Boston’s total with their world series victory this past season; bringing them 2 in the decade. Thy started the decade with a World Series and ended it too. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Five years prior to their latest championship, the Empire brought in the greatest player of this decade in Alex Rodriguez. This in turn brought us in unmeasurable amount of media fodder.

Honorable mentions
Indianapolis Colts – Peyton Manning was everywhere this decade. Unfortunately, as the joke has gone, the team has not been a top of NFL come February but once.

Cleveland Cavaliers – LeBron has single-handedly helped to remedy Cleveland’s losing ways. Still, they never quite got over the hump and to the NBA Championship.

Dallas Cowboys – I almost forgot about them. Maybe that is because they didn’t win a damn thing this decade. They did however have still one of the more high profile owners and a number of players in the limelight.