2001 National League Championship Series

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The 2001 National League Championship Series (NLCS) saw the Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the Atlanta Braves in five games to win the National League pennant in the franchise's fourth year of existence. The Diamondbacks went on to defeat the New York Yankees in seven games to win the World Series.

The Diamondbacks won their division with a 92–70 record. One strength of their team was the pitching duo of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, who led the team in wins above replacement. The primary weapon for Arizona on offense was Luis Gonzalez, who belted 57 home runs during the season. The Diamondbacks had outlasted the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS to reach their first NLCS. The Atlanta Braves won their tenth straight division title, but it had not been by a wide margin in 2001. They struggled to an 88–74 record, their worst since 1990. Greg Maddux had another big season for the Braves, winning 17 games. Chipper Jones was the leader of the Atlanta offense, batting .330 during the season to go along with his 38 home runs. After their embarrassing defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2000 NLDS, the underdog Braves blitzed the Houston Astros in the 2001 NLDS, sweeping them in three games.

Fox carried the National League Division Series over its network with its top broadcast team, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, calling the action of Game 1 and Game 2, and Thom Brennaman (himself a Diamondbacks broadcaster) and Steve Lyons calling the action of Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5. Game 5 of the 2001 NLCS was played at the same time as Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS and was a split national broadcast on Fox and Fox Sports Net. ESPN Radio provided national radio coverage for the fourth consecutive year, with Charley Steiner and Dave Campbell calling the action. Locally, the NLCS was called on KTAR AM in Phoenix by Greg Schulte, Jeff Munn, Rod Allen and Jim Traber, and on WSB AM in Atlanta by Pete Van Wieren, Skip Caray, Don Sutton, and Joe Simpson.

Arizona would continue to ride the brilliant duo of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling to a World Series victory against the Yankees in a dramatic seven game series. The Diamondbacks, in their fourth season of existence, were the fastest expansion team to win a World Series, beating out the 1997 Florida Marlins, who had done it in their fifth season at that time. After dominating the National League in the 1990s (which included five consecutive victories in the NLDS to go with eight total NLCS trips and one World Series win in 1995), this would be the closest that Atlanta would get to going back to the World Series in the Bobby Cox era. The Braves would return to the postseason in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, but they would not get past the National League Division Series. By their 2004 and 2005 teams, the Braves gave significant playing time to their younger players and had moved on from star veterans such as Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Gary Sheffield, and Javy Lopez. Atlanta would not win another playoff series until 2020 and would not win another World Series until 2021. Bobby Cox would retire in 2010, leading managers all time in multiple categories, such as playoff appearances, 100 win seasons (shared at six with John McGraw), and ejections, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014. Game 5 also marks the final time that Turner Field hosted either a League Championship Series or a World Series game. Arizona would not return an NLCS until 2007, which by this time, they did not have any players from the 2001 team. They did not win another pennant until 2023 when they upset the Phillies in seven games.