The Celtics Have 18 NBA Titles and the Lakers 17: Every Champion Since 1947

We rebuilt all 80 Finals game by game and checked every champion and runner-up against NBA.com's list of champions. Titles are counted by franchise, as in NBA.com's records, so the Minneapolis Lakers count with Los Angeles and the Seattle SuperSonics with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Which NBA team has the most championships?

The Celtics, with 18 titles in 23 Finals, the most recent in 2024. The Lakers have reached the Finals a record 32 times and lost 15 of them, also the most. The Golden State Warriors (seven titles), Chicago Bulls (six) and San Antonio Spurs (five) follow, and those five franchises hold 53 of the 80 titles, 66 percent.

The Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat have three each, and the Thunder, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks two. Eight more have one, so 20 of today's 30 franchises have won the title. The 21st champion, the original Baltimore Bullets of 1948, folded in 1954.

Twelve titles came under an earlier name or city. The Minneapolis Lakers won five, the Philadelphia Warriors two, and the Syracuse Nationals (now the 76ers), Rochester Royals (Sacramento Kings), St. Louis Hawks (Atlanta Hawks), Washington Bullets (Wizards) and SuperSonics one each; Seattle's 1979 title is why the Thunder franchise has two.

NBA championships by team: titles, Finals and records

The Bulls are the only franchise with more than one Finals and no losses, 6-0. The Phoenix Suns have lost all three of their Finals, and the Brooklyn Nets, Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers both of theirs. Boston has won nine of its 12 Finals against the Lakers, the most common matchup.

NBA champions by decade: how many different teams won

The 2020s have had seven champions in seven seasons, and counting the 2019 Toronto Raptors, eight franchises have won the last eight titles. No run of different champions has lasted longer; the previous longest was six, from 1975 to 1980.

The 1960s were the opposite: the Celtics won nine titles in 10 seasons, and only the 1967 76ers interrupted them. The 1980s and 1990s had four champions each, led by the Lakers' five titles and the Bulls' six, and the 1970s were the most open full decade, with eight.

NBA dynasties: the most titles in 10 seasons

Repeats have become rare: champions have won the next title 23 times in 79 tries, none since Golden State in 2018, as our study of defending champions shows. By the most titles in any 10 straight seasons, the top dynasties are:

• Boston Celtics: 9, from 1959 to 1968, part of 11 titles in 13 seasons from 1957 to 1969.
• Chicago Bulls: 6, from 1991 to 1998.
• Los Angeles Lakers: 5, from 1949 to 1954 in Minneapolis and again from 1980 to 1988.
• San Antonio Spurs: 4, from 1999 to 2007.
• Golden State Warriors: 4, from 2015 to 2022.

Longest NBA title droughts and teams that never won

The Kings have gone longest without a title: their only one came in 1951 as the Rochester Royals, 75 seasons ago. The Hawks have not won since 1958 in St. Louis, the Portland Trail Blazers since 1977, the Wizards since 1978 as the Bullets and the 76ers since 1983.

Ten franchises have never won: the Suns, waiting longest at 58 seasons, the LA Clippers (56), Jazz (52), Nets and Pacers (50 NBA seasons each), Minnesota Timberwolves, Magic, Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans. Charlotte, the Clippers, Memphis, Minnesota and New Orleans have never reached the Finals; our study of playoff droughts tracks every team's wait for the playoffs.

How often the best record wins the NBA title

Less than half the time: the team with the league's best regular-season record has won 21 of the 47 titles since 1979-80, as our study of best records found, and the 2026 Knicks were tied for sixth-best at 53-29. In the Finals, the team with home court has won 57 of 79, the 2020 bubble aside, as our study of Finals length shows.

The Knicks' 2026 title in context

New York beat San Antonio 4-1 for its third title, after 1970 and 1973. The 52 seasons in between are the longest wait any franchise has ended; the Bucks waited 49 between titles in 1971 and 2021, and the Denver Nuggets played 46 NBA seasons before their first, in 2023.

The Knicks went 16-3 in the playoffs, with 13 straight wins after trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in the first round, a run topped in one postseason only by the 2017 Warriors' 15. They outscored opponents by 283 points, the most by any team in one postseason since 1947, as NBA.com's season review notes; it names Jalen Brunson Finals MVP.

The 2026-27 NBA season

The league's 81st regular season runs from October 20 to April 11, 2027, and its schedule release set the Knicks' banner raising for opening night, against the 76ers. The NBA schedule lists every game, and the NBA simulator lets you play out the season.

Every NBA champion since 1947: the full list

All 80 Finals, teams under their names at the time. The first three were in the Basketball Association of America, which became the NBA in 1949.

NBA champions: frequently asked questions

Which NBA team has the most championships? The Boston Celtics, with 18, most recently in 2024. The Los Angeles Lakers are second with 17 and the Golden State Warriors third with seven.

How many championships do the Lakers have? Seventeen: five as the Minneapolis Lakers from 1949 to 1954 and 12 in Los Angeles, the latest in 2020.

Who won the 2026 NBA championship? The New York Knicks, 4-1 over the San Antonio Spurs, for their first title since 1973. Jalen Brunson was Finals MVP.

Which NBA teams have never won a championship? Ten: the Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers, Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans.

Which team has won the most NBA titles in a row? The Boston Celtics, eight straight from 1959 to 1966.

How this was built: all 80 BAA and NBA Finals, 1947 to 2026, 461 games, from NBA.com's official game logs since 1984 and from Wikipedia's playoff pages before that, such as the 1970 playoffs, checked against the series score after every game. Champions and runners-up match Wikipedia's list and NBA.com's, which gives the 1952 Finals as 4-1; they went seven games. Franchises keep their history when they move or are renamed, and only BAA and NBA seasons count. Playoff records use all 908 series since 1947.