If you want to know how many times your favorite NBA team has won the world championship, just ask Alexa.
“Alexa, ask NBA machines who is the best in the league.”
The current champion is the Golden State Warriors, which took home their third title last year. The Cleveland Cavaliers are in second place with three wins in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The Chicago Bulls have six championships while Michael Jordan played for them in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1997 (he retired after that season). On average it takes about 4 years for an NBA team to win one title. For this article, I looked at every NBA franchise that has won a world championship since 1950 (see chart below). To calculate the number of titles I did not include the San Francisco Warriors who won the franchise’s only title in 2015. I did this because that team does not exist anymore and is now called the Golden State Warriors. In addition, there were 12 teams between 1950-1968 which means one half of the league at a time won a championship while today two teams from each conference get to play in the NBA finals.
NBA TEAMS WITH THE MOST TITLES SINCE 1950
Team Number of Titles Championships Per Year Years Since Last Title (if applicable) Golden State Warriors 3 0.9 -Cleveland Cavaliers 3 2 -Chicago Bulls 6 4 -Los Angeles Lakers 16 7 Boston Celtics 17 8 Houston Rockets 2 1 Miami Heat 3 1 Dallas Mavericks 1 0.3 Oklahoma City Thunder 0 0 San Antonio Spurs 5 1 Los Angeles Clippers 1 0.2 Detroit Pistons 3 0.6 Philadelphia 76ers 2 0.4 Milwaukee Bucks 1 0.1 New York Knicks 2 0.2 Phoenix Suns 4 0.8 Utah Jazz 2 0.4 Portland Trail Blazers 1 0.1 Indiana Pacers 1 of last 31 years, but since joining the NBA in 1976) -Washington Wizards 1 33% chance of winning playoffs this year +92% if they get past the first round.
(+95% if they get to conference finals) Seattle Supersonics /OKC Thunder 7 titles with Seattle, eliminated in the first round of playoffs this year Orlando Magic 2 titles, neither within the last 8 years Minnesota Timberwolves 1 1 Cleveland Cavaliers first title for this franchise in any sport since 1964 -Milwaukee Bucks 17 NBA seasons and still no championship.
*Excluding the Warriors because they do not exist anymore. Instead of the San Francisco Warriors, I am including Golden State as they are now called after moving from Philadelphia to San Francisco (1962-1971), Kansas City (1972-76), and then Oakland (that’s where they play today). If we include them, then every NBA team that has won a title has done it at least twice with 14 teams winning more than 2 championships. Three franchises: Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, and Los Angeles Lakers lead the way with 17 titles each. The Celtics started out as having 11 titles but lost 4 of them when a referee decided a game against the Lakers was a forfeit instead of a double-overtime loss for Boston.
