Could this really happen?!

Set the parade route. The Utah Jazz just won the NBA championship on ESPN’s NBA Playoff Predictor.

And it only took five tries to do it.

If you haven’t heard of this playoff game, well, it’s about as addicting as those darn Cadbury Mini Eggs that make me gain about five pounds every Easter. It’s a fun time-wasting feature on ESPN Insider (subscription-required) that allows you to watch how ESPN’s computers play out the NBA playoffs according to probabilities, formulas, trends, power rankings, BCS affiliations, spilled drinks on keyboards, etc. At least they say it’s played out by a computer. Part of me wonders if their savvy stat guru John Hollinger actually plays out each try for you.

So this morning, I played it. I was curious if the Jazz had any shot of making a deep playoff run. It seems the Jazz are destined for the dreaded 4-5 slot and, should they survive that, an even more dreaded second-round date with the Lakers.

Truth be told, the Jazz, seeded fourth, didn’t fare so well the first three tries.

Round 1: Beat surprise No. 5 seed Dallas, then lost in the second round to, of course, the Lakers.

Round 2: Beat surprise No. 5 seed Dallas, then lost in the second round to, of course, the Lakers.

Round 3: Lost to surprise No. 5 seed Dallas.

But …. things started looking a bit better in Round 4 …

Round 4: Beat Dallas, then WON in the second around against, yes really, the Lakers, then lost in the Western Conference Finals to Denver.

And then … let’s just say I was surprised:

Round 5: Downed Dallas. Upset the Lakers. Got past the Nuggets. And … drum roll … shocked the world by beating the Atlanta Hawks to win the NBA championship (while setting new lows for TV viewership in the Finals, of course).

And here’s what it looks like:

After you finish celebrating, here is the link to the NBA.com’s helpful tiebreaker page again.