The National Basketball Association (NBA) presents the championship trophy to the NBA club that advances to the NBA finals every year. The championship trophy was formerly known as the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy.
The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers are the league’s most successful franchises to win the NBA titles. Both of them won 17 titles till 2021.
The number of titles won is sometimes used to rate players. Such an accomplishment will unquestionably alter a basketball player’s legacy and establish his place in NBA history.
In most cases, researching an NBA team means going through the league’s history. It will allow you to view how many championship trophies each NBA club has in their trophy case, which fans may use to place NBA Championship odds.
WHICH NATIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM HAS THE MOST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS TITLES?
Let’s take a look at the NBA franchises with the most titles and a few of the players that helped them reach the basketball world’s summit.
- The Boston Celtics have won seventeen NBA championships.
The Celtics are tied for the most NBA titles in league history with the Lakers. They are one of the league’s original four franchises, having remained in the same location and bearing the moniker since the league’s inception in 1949.
Between 1959 and 1966, Bill Russell led the club to eight straight NBA championships. He is regarded as the greatest winner in NBA history, with the most championship rings of any player.
The Celtics chose small center Larry Bird out of Indiana in 1978 and proceeded to win in the 1980s, when Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish led them to three championship campaigns during that decade, the most recent of which came in 1986.
After 22 years of their 1986 win, the Celtics were able to add another in 2008. The Celtics won their 17th NBA Championship in six games against the Los Angeles Lakers. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were the team’s leaders.
- The Los Angeles Lakers have won seventeen NBA championships.
The Lakers won four of the first five NBA championships in the early 1950s, establishing the first dynasty in professional basketball history. George Mikan, Jim Pollard, and Vern Mikkelsen captained those squads.
Their most famous victory streak was a 33-game undefeated record in 1972. Along with Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, and Elgin Baylor, that club was headed by Wilt Chamberlain, one of the NBA’s best centers.
Their second dynasty began in 1979 when they picked Magic Johnson out of Michigan State. Johnson was supported by the likes of Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott, and Michael Cooper during the 1980s on his way to capturing five championships with a Pat Riley-coached Lakers squad.
After a championship drought in the 1990s, the Lakers regained NBA dominance in the early 2000s. It all began with a transaction that sent Shaquille O’Neal, the Orland Magic’s great center, to the Los Angeles Lakers. Between 2000 and 2002, O’Neal teamed up with All-Star guard Kobe Bryant and head coach Phil Jackson to lead the Lakers to three consecutive titles.
Following O’Neal’s 2004 move to the Miami Heat, it took Kobe a few years to win his first title without the big man, but he did so in 2009 and 2010.
Finally, a LeBron James-led Lakers team paid tribute to the late Kobe Bryant by winning the franchise’s 17th title in 2020 over the Miami Heat. Anthony Davis served as James’ running buddy throughout last year’s championship run and will aim to assist the Lakers to win further titles in the future years.
- Chicago Bulls: Six NBA titles
It’s difficult to fathom a world without the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, which is absurd since they were dominant for just one decade, the 1990s. The Bulls, led by NBA legends Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, B.J Armstrong, and Horace Grant, won their first title in team history in 1991 and three consecutive championships from 1991 to 1993.
They were able to win three straight titles again between 1996 and 1998. They shared Jordan and Pippen’s core. Nonetheless, Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc, and Steve Kerr were added.
Their next greatest chance at a title came in 2012 when MVP Derrick Rose led them to the Eastern Conference’s best record into the playoffs. Rose tore his ACL in the last minutes of game 1 of the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers. Chicago would be ousted in six games by the Sixers that season.
- Golden State Warriors: Six NBA titles
The Warriors were based in Philadelphia from 1951 through 1962 and won the NBA title for the first time in 1956. Neil Johnston and Paul Arizin headed those squads and are among the franchise’s finest players.
During the early 1990s, the trio of Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, and Mitch Richmond was dubbed “Run TMC,” a pun on the 1980’s Hip-Hop group “Run DMC.” Although they never won a championship together, they are one of the NBA’s most famous trios and all-time favorite combinations.
Finally, a new era of bay-area supremacy began in 2015, when the Warriors won their fourth NBA championship, defeating LeBron James and the Cavaliers with a 67-win season spearheaded by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala. They had the second-best winning run in franchise history that same year, winning 28 consecutive games.
Curry has won two MVPs, three championships, and been selected to seven All-Star games in his 11-year career. They are regarded as the finest shooting backcourt the game has ever seen when paired with Klay Thompson, earning the moniker “Splash Bros.”
Kevin Durant opted to join Golden State a year after his Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals and would help the Warriors win two more titles in 2017 and 2018.
- The San Antonio Spurs have won five NBA championships.
Throughout the late 1990s, the Spurs were a serious opponent for the rest of the league, headed by David Robinson, Avery Johnson, and Tim Duncan, probably the best power forward of all time. Gregg Popovich’s squad would win their franchise’s first title in 1999.
Their actual dominance began in the early 2000s, with NBA Finals victories in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Popovich, Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobli captained those squads. After a seven-year championship drought, San Antonio has been given another opportunity to add to their trophy collection, which they achieved by beating the Miami Heat and their “Big 3” of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh, avenging their heartbreaking loss to Miami in 2013.