What NBA Teams Haven’t Won a Championship?

It’s hard to believe that there are still a handful of NBA teams who have never won a championship, but it’s true! In this blog post, we’ll take a look at which teams have never won it all, and some of the reasons why.

Introduction

In the history of the NBA, there have been a total of 69 different teams that have won at least one championship title. Of those 69 teams, 31 of them have won multiple championships, with the Boston Celtics leading the way with 17 total titles.

However, that still leaves 38 NBA teams who have never won a championship in their history. most of those teams are expansion teams who haven’t had much time to build a contending roster, but there are a few notable franchises who have been around for a long time and have yet to win a title.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the eight oldest NBA franchises who have never won a championship, as well as a brief overview of their history and how close they’ve come to winning it all.

The teams

There are currently 30 teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Of those 30 teams, 21 have won at least one NBA Championship. The remaining 9 teams have never won an NBA Championship. These 9 teams are the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Phoenix Suns.

Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference’s Pacific Division. The Kings are the only team in the major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team plays its home games at the Golden 1 Center. Their best players have been De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton.

The franchise began as the Rochester Royals, a National Basketball League (NBL) team based in Rochester, New York. They joined the NBA in 1945 as the Syracuse Nationals. In 1957, they relocated to Cincinnati and became the Cincinnati Royals. In 1972, the team was renamed to Kansas City-Omaha Kings because it split its home games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska from 1972 to 1975. In 1975, it became just Omaha Kings until moving back to Kansas City under new ownership which bought the franchise from Mid-America Enterprises that same year due to several factors such as lagging attendance figures and inability to reach a lease agreement with Omaha Civic Auditorium management despite having already fulfilled their obligations with Kemper Arena in Kansas City.[6] In 1985, the Kings terminated their cumbersome 25-year lease with Omaha’s CenturyLink Center after reaching a buyout agreement worth $24 million following preconditions set by then-Mayor Harold Weaver that dictated significant rent reductions

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 1989, the team is owned by Glen Taylor who also owns the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. The Timberwolves play their home games at Target Center, their home since 1990.

Like most expansion teams, the Timberwolves struggled in their early years, but after 10 seasons, they made the playoffs 8 times in a row from 1997 to 2004. led by two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Kevin Garnett and All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler, the Timberwolves qualified for their first playoff berth since 2003–04 and ended a 14-year playoff drought – the longest active drought in major professional sports at that time – with a 31–51 record during the 2016–17 season.

Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks are a professional basketball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at State Farm Arena.

The Hawks began playing as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946 in Buffalo, New York, where they were one of the National Basketball League’s 17 original teams. In 1951, a franchise was awarded to Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based manufacturer and distributor Ben Kerner and moved to Milwaukee, becoming the Milwaukee Hawks. Kerner and the team moved again in 1955 to St. Louis, Missouri, where they won their only NBA Championship in 1958. The Hawks played the Boston Celtics in all four of their trips to the NBA Finals (1957, 1958, 1960, 1961), losing each time. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968 after Kerner sold the franchise to Thomas Cousins and former Georgia Governor Carl Sanders.

The Hawks currently own the second-longest drought of not winning an NBA championship at 57 seasons (as of 2019–20), behind only the Sacramento Kings’ 71-season drought (as of 2019–20).

Charlotte Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Hornets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league’s Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team is owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan.

The franchise began play in 1988 as an expansion team, which was originally based in Charlotte. Led by Kemba Walker, the Hornets finished the 2014–15 season with a 56–26 record, qualifying them for the playoffs for the second consecutive season. The Hornets then went on to defeat the Miami Heat 3–2 in the First Round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs before losing to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Atlanta Hawks 4–3 in the Semifinal Round.

Conclusion

Since the NBA was established in 1946, there have been 69 teams that have won at least one NBA Championship. Of those 69 teams, 58 of them have won multiple championships. Here is a list of all the teams that haven’t won an NBA Championship.

Atlanta Hawks
Boston Celtics
Charlotte Hornets
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Dallas Mavericks
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Pistons
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets
Indiana Pacers
LA Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies
Miami Heat
Milwaukee BucksNew Orleans Pelicans New York Knicks Oklahoma City Thunder Orlando Magic Philadelphia 76ers Phoenix Suns Portland Trail Blazers Sacramento Kings San Antonio Spurs Toronto Raptors Utah Jazz Washington Wizards