What NBA Teams Have Never Won a Finals?

We all know the teams that have won the NBA Finals, but what about the teams that have never won it all? Here’s a look at the NBA teams that have never won a Finals.

Introduction

There are thirty NBA teams, and of those, only eight have won an NBA Finals. The other twenty-two teams are looking to get that first win and etch their name into NBA history. In this article, we will take a look at the seventeen teams who have never won an NBA Finals.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Pacific Division. The Clippers were founded in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, one of three expansion teams to join the NBA that year. The Braves moved from Buffalo, New York to San Diego, California in 1978 and became known as the San Diego Clippers. In 1984, the franchise moved to Los Angeles.

Despite sharing a market with the more popular Los Angeles Lakers since 1984, the Clippers have amassed a loyal and dedicated fan base. They have been involved in several high-profile controversies including a sexual harassment scandal involving former owner Donald Sterling and racism allegations made against former general manager Elgin Baylor. The team has also seen periods of poor play, including missing the playoffs 15 times since 1977–78, overall having an all-time winning percentage of 40.3%, and only making it past the first round of the playoffs twice since relocating to Los Angeles in 1984. Through 56 seasons of play, they have compiled an overall record of 2097 wins and 2351 losses.

Charlotte Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets have never won an NBA Finals. The franchise began in 1988 as the Charlotte Spirits, an expansion team in the NBA’s eastern conference. The team changed its name to the Hornets in 1991. From 2004 to 2014, the Charlotte Hornets were known as the Bobcats.

Brooklyn Nets

The Brooklyn Nets are a professional basketball team based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at Barclays Center. They are one of two NBA franchises in New York City; the other is the New York Knicks.

The franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the NBA’s rival league, the American Basketball Association (ABA). They played four seasons in New Jersey as the New Jersey Americans, winning two ABA championships, before moving to Long Island in 1971 and changing their name to the New York Nets. They won two more championships in Brooklyn before losing both teams’ titles to aging veteran Julius Erving and his upstart ABA franchise, the Virginia Squires. After heavy financial losses for their owner, Roy Boe, and poor attendance figures (despite some fine players on both squads), both franchises were merged into one entity with George Mikan as head coach; they became today’s Knicks’ cross-town rivals, the Indiana Pacers.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves joined the NBA in 1989 as an expansion team. In their 29 years in the league, they have yet to make an appearance in the NBA Finals. The closest they have come was in 2004, when they made it to the Western Conference Finals but lost to the eventual champion, the Los Angeles Lakers.

New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans are a professional basketball team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home games in the Smoothie King Center.

The Pelicans were established as the New Orleans Hornets in the 2002–03 season when then-owner of the Charlotte Hornets, George Shinn, relocated the franchise to New Orleans. Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the franchise temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City, where they spent two seasons officially known as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets.

The team returned to New Orleans full-time for the 2007–08 season. On January 24, 2013, the franchise announced it would rename itself the Pelicans, effective after the conclusion of

Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA), but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974. For their first 24 years of existence, the Nuggets were slow and incompetent, only once finishing a season with more than 30 wins and never qualifying for the ABA playoffs. However, with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976, things started to change.

The Nuggets enjoyed some success in their early NBA years, making it to the playoffs six times from 1977 to 1985, but they were never able to make it to the Finals. In fact, they only won one playoff series in that entire time period. After missing the playoffs for nine straight seasons, they finally made it back in 2004 but were promptly swept by the San Antonio Spurs. They haven’t been back since.

Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers are a professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league’s Eastern Conference Central Division. The team plays its home games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, which they share with the women’s team, the Indiana Fever of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Pacers were first established in 1967 as a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and became a member of the NBA in 1976 as a result of the ABA–NBA merger. They have won five division championships (1970, 1971, 1988, 2014, 2018), three conference championships (1970, 1972, 2000), one NBA championship (2000), and have qualified for 19 playoff appearances since their debut season.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Southwest Division. The Grizzlies play their home games at FedExForum.

The team was established as the Vancouver Grizzlies, an expansion team that joined the NBA for the 1995–96 season. After the 2000–01 season concluded, the franchise relocated to Memphis. The Grizzlies hold the dubious distinction of being the NBA franchise with the longest playoff drought; they last made the playoffs in 2011, and have not won a playoff series since 2006. As of 2019, they have appeared in a total of 20 postseason games and have won just two, both against the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder franchise.

Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Suns began play as an expansion team in 1968. The franchise owns the NBA’s fourth-best all-time winning percentage, winning 55 percent of its games, as of the end of the 2012–13 season.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there have been a number of NBA teams who have never won a finals. Some of these teams include the Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings. These teams have all come close to winning a finals at some point but have ultimately fallen short.