All eyes are on the 2022 NBA finals as the remaining 8 teams are battling for the last two spots, know which team has the most titles in history
The Milwaukee Bucks franchise are the reigning NBA Champions after Giannis Antetokounmpo led the team to its first championship in 50 years. It was a historic night for Milwaukee and the Greek Freak who became only the 7th player to drop 50 points in the finals.
Making it past the first, second or final round of the conference playoffs is never an easy feat, let alone winning the chip. But some franchises have been able to stamp their name in the NBA history books with multiple championships. Which teams have the most hung-up banners in their rafters?
Most NBA Titles By Team All Time List
Boston Celtics (17)
The Celtics are one of the four franchises that have played all 75 seasons in the NBA. No other team in the history of the NBA has dominated an era like Boston.
The Cs were a force in the 60s; Bill Russell led the team to 8 consecutive titles from 1959 to 1966. He would later hang up his jersey as the player with the most rings (11), all with the Celtics.
The Celtics added two championships to their cabinet in the 70s. They achieved further success upon drafting Larry Bird in 1978 as he would go on to lead the team to three more titles between 1981 and 1986.
Boston had to wait 22 more years before they could call themselves NBA champions. And they did so in style, defeating their biggest rivals in 2008. The 2008 Celtics roster featured a star-studded trio in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.
The Celtics would be looking to win their 18th title this season, and have one of the highest NBA betting odds to do so.
Los Angeles Lakers (17)
The Los Angeles Lakers are tied with the Celtics for most championships. LA has enjoyed the services of some of the best players to ever play basketball. We’re talking of the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and now Lebron James all representing the purple and gold.
The Lakers were the first team to enjoy a stint of success in the NBA, winning four of the first five championships in the 1950s. But with the Celtics dominating the 60s, Lakers fans had to wait till 1972 to be crowned Champions again. Their 1972 winning season was marked by their remarkable 33 game winning streak, a record that still holds to this day. The team was led by Wilt Chamberlain and featured other greats like Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.
Then came the showtime Lakers in the 80s; a team that had Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy was destined for success. The Lakers would go on to win five championships in the 80s, putting up one of the most fascinating on-court displays in the process.
The 90s was not the best of decades for the Lakers as fans had to endure a title drought. But the team re-emerged in the 2000s after Shaquille O’Neal teamed up with Kobe Bryant, and won three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002. Head coach Phil Jackson became the first and so far, the only coach to win a 3-peat with two different franchises.
After several failed attempts to win without Shaq, Kobe would later lead the team to two consecutive championships in 2009 and 2010.
And then there came the bittersweet year for the Lakers. Lebron led them to their 17th title in 2020, barely 10 months after LA fans were hit with the tragic news of Kobe Bryant’s demise.
Chicago Bulls (6)
Speaking of a dynasty, no other team has dominated a decade like the Chicago Bulls in the modern era of basketball. The Bulls were the team to beat in the 90s. The odds of winning three consecutive championships are very low, but the Bulls did it twice in the same decade (1991-1993 and 1996-1998).
The 90s will forever be remembered as the Michael Jordan era, and while MJ was the central figure for the Bulls, we’ve got to give a ton of credit to other important pieces that contributed to the team’s success; Head coach Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and the likes of Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr, and Toni Kukoc who joined the team in 1996.
Golden State Warriors (6)
The franchise was established in Philadelphia and won its first title in 1947 and 1956.
Their next title win was in 1975, and it was their first since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Golden State Warriors were the underdogs against the Washington Bullets but ended up winning the series after four games. It marked the first time a team swept an NBA finals series without having home court advantage.
The Dubs would not win any more championships until 2015. The Warriors made five consecutive trips to the finals, winning three, including back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018:
Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodola took down Lebron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015 to win the franchise its fourth title. They made the finals again after winning 73 games in the regular season (a league record). However, they lost to the Cavs after 7 games.
The Warriors acquired Kevin Durant the following year, giving them arguably the most lethal offensive roster ever assembled in NBA history. Together with Curry, Thompson, and Green, KD led the Warriors past the Cavs to win their fifth title, and the team repeated as champions in 2018 (also against the Cavs).
The Dubs and Cavs series remain the only time two teams faced off in the NBA finals for four consecutive years.
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