Since its birth in 1946, the National Basketball Association has housed the best the world of basketball has to offer, producing some remarkable rosters.
21 different NBA franchises have conquered the best of basketball to earn the NBA Championship, often led by the sport’s greatest names such as Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
It’s arguably one of the most difficult trophies to earn across the whole of sport, with teams first having to navigate the marathon 82-game regular season before even gracing the playoffs.
Reaching the playoffs is only part of the story, though, with the top eight teams from the Eastern and Western conferences first having to battle it out to claim their conference titles.
The two sides that stand above the rest then battle it out to earn the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, making the achievement a particularly impressive one. Winning one NBA Championship is impressive enough, but some franchises have gone even further to take home the title on multiple occasions.
San Antonio Spurs – 5 NBA Championships
A franchise’s success often coincides with the acquisition of a star player, a case that is perfectly displayed by the San Antonio Spurs and the arrival of Tim Duncan.
Duncan arrived in San Antonio in 1997 and just two years later, the team won their first NBA Championship by beating the New York Knicks in 1999. Duncan would then win the league’s MVP award in 2003 on the way to the franchise’s second Championship.
Supporting Duncan into the mid-2000s were Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, with Parker claiming the Finals MVP in 2007 which took the Spurs’ Championship wins to four.
The addition of Kawhi Leonard in 2011 gave the Spurs another star that paid dividends in 2014 as Leonard won the Finals MVP on the way to a 5th Championship for the San Antonio franchise, which remains their most recent title.
Chicago Bulls – 6 NBA Championships
Immediately preceding the era of Duncan and the Spurs was the iconic Chicago Bulls team of the 1990s that won all six of the franchise’s NBA Championships in the same decade.
Led by the legendary pair of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, the Bulls won three straight Championships between 1991 and 1993, dominating the likes of Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley in the process.
Jordan’s shock retirement in 1993 saw the Bulls fail to retain their title in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons but the star man returned in 1995 to set up another period of dominance.
Adding Dennis Rodman from the Spurs whilst having the likes of Steve Kerr in reserve saw the 1996 Bulls side regain their Championship, becoming one of the most highly regarded NBA rosters of all time.
Two more successive titles would follow to see out Jordan’s career, shaping one of the most successful NBA franchises in history through a single decade of dominance.
Golden State Warriors – 7 NBA Championships
As the NBA’s inaugural champions in 1946, the Golden State Warriors’ seven Championships could’ve been expected to come in these early seasons but the franchise’s iconic era came almost 70 years later.
Further titles in 1956 and 1975 preceded a 40-year barren spell for the Warriors, which would all change upon the arrival of former Bulls player Kerr as the new head coach.
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were already stars and with the breakthrough of Draymond Green, the Warriors stormed to the 2015 NBA Championship, signalling the start of a franchise-best run.
The Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 final, before losing to the same team in the following season’s finale. Remarkably the two teams would meet for a third successive season in the 2017 NBA Finals, with the Warriors winning 4-1 in the series.
NBA All-Star Kevin Durant had also joined the Warriors by this point, creating a five-player lineup with four All-Star talents to help the Warriors retain their title in 2018.
Durant left in 2019 but Curry, Thompson and Green would rise once more to win the 2022 Championship, cementing their iconic legacies in San Francisco.
Los Angeles Lakers – 17 NBA Championships
Whilst the previous teams have dominated a single era, the Los Angeles Lakers can claim dominance over multiple generations of the NBA.
Their first spell of success came when the team were based in Minneapolis, where the Lakers won five Championships between 1949 and 1954 led by the great George Mikan.
A singular title in the 70s came before the ‘Showtime’ era of the Lakers, spearheaded by the acquisition of Magic Johnson to partner the MVP-winning Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The two aided the franchise to five NBA Championships in the 80s, taking the Lakers to 11 titles.
Another five-title decade came in the 2000s with the incredible pairing of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal taking the Lakers to three consecutive titles between 2000 and 2002.
Bryant and Pau Gasol helped the franchise win the 2009 and 2010 Championships, with the 17th title coming in the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season led by LeBron James and Anthony Davies as the former beat his old team, the Miami Heat, in the finals.
Boston Celtics – 18 NBA Championships
During the 20th Century, any period of time not dominated by the Lakers was likely controlled by the Boston Celtics. The Celtics won an unthinkable eight NBA Championships in a row between 1959 and 1966, with star centre Bill Russell at the heart of the team.
Larry Bird took the mantle as the franchise star in the 80s when the Celtics won three Championships but these were the last seasons where the team would taste success until 2008 when the ‘Big Three’ of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce secured the title.
Momentum was never built for the Celtics, though, until the drafting of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum helped the franchise recapture the NBA Championship in 2024 over the Dallas Mavericks.
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