The 5 NBA teams with the most titles

The US is undoubtedly the world’s leader when it comes to basketball – so the NBA can confidently call itself the sport’s leading league.

Established in 1946 it now consists of no less that 30 teams and is enjoying more popularity than ever before.

According to the official stats, on average 1.59 million viewers tuned in to the regular season in 2022-23. Then, when it came to the playoffs, this figure rocketed to 5.47 million.

This is understandable as this is when the best of the best start to compete for the ultimate prize in the NBA, the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, that is won in June of each year.

The current holders are the Denver Nuggets who overwhelmed Miami Heat 4-1 – great news for any Nuggets who bet online at one of Colorado’s sportsbooks. It was the team’s first championship win ever – but they still have a long way to go before they get close to equalling the top five names in terms of number of wins.

San Antonio Spurs – 5 wins from 6 appearances

It took around two decades from their inception in 1976 for the Spurs to really hit their stride. But the arrival of head coach Gregg Popovich heralded the beginnings of success in the 1996-97 season.

The following year they made the playoffs for the first time – and again for the next 22 years.

The first title came in the 1998-99 season thanks, largely, to the skills of players Tim Duncan and David Robinson.

From 2003 they made a habit of winning every other year with two more titles in 2005 and 2007 and came very close in the years that followed. Their fifth, and most recent, title came in 2014 with a 4-1 victory over Miami Heat.

Golden State Warriors – 5 wins from 11 appearances

Technically, the Warriors could claim seven victories having won the very first finals back in 1947 when they were the Philadelphia Warriors and again in 1956. But, for the purposes of this rundown, we’ll only consider their victories once they had relocated to California and were transformed into the Golden State Warriors in 1971.

The first victory came in 1975 with Rick Barry and Jamaal Wilkes instrumental in the win over the Washington Bullets.

There followed some wilderness years but when coach Steve Kerr started to unleash the potential of Stephen Curry things started to happen. The results were wins in 2015, 2017 and 2018 – a a golden age for the Golden State Warriors.

With a more recent win over Boston Celtics in 2022, Curry was still delivering for the team.

Chicago Bulls – 6 wins from 6 appearances

The only team to have a 100% record is the Bulls. For this team the undoubted turning point came with the arrival of Michael Jordan in 1984. But it was a slow process with the first title coming in 1991, with two more to follow in the next couple of years. As well as Jordan, Scottie Pippen is also worthy of an honourable mention for his contribution to this purple patch for the team.

They say that good things come in threes, and that was certainly true when a resurgent Bulls notched up another trio of wins from 1996 to 1998 beating the Seattle Supersonics and Utah Jazz twice.

Boston Celtics – 17 wins from 21 appearances

While the Celtics haven’t carried off the title since 2008, nothing can take away from their huge achievements in the past. Winning 11 titles in 13 years, this included an eight-year winning streak from 1959 to 1966.

Since then, the wins have become a little more sporadic and they were unlucky to lose out to the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 finals.

Over the years the team has seen many of the greats turn out for them including countless Hall of Famers like Bill Russell, Frank Ramsey and John Havlicek.

Their 1976 game 5 encounter with the Phoenix Suns is considered by some to be the greatest ever in basketball history going into a third overtime until they emerged as 128-126 winners.

LA Lakers – 17 wins from 32 appearances

Level-pegging with the Celtics, here’s the second Californian team in the list.

The victories began in 1949 back when the league was called the BAA and the team was based in Minneapolis. The first win as the LA Lakers came in 1972 when they saw off the New York Knicks 4-1. The arrival of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar heralded a period which saw nine finals appearances and five victories between 1980 and 1988.

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal then formed their winning partnership – leading to back-to-back titles in 2009 and 10. The latest win came in 2020 with LeBron James centre stage.

With the Celtics and Lakers so far ahead, it’s going to be a long time before their feats are matched, let alone overtaken. And it’s going to take a pretty special team to achieve it.