The maturation of an NBA championship team doesn't happen overnight. Outside of the quick-fix strategy of building super teams with nomadic stars, a franchise must be fortunate enough to draft a generational talent and then surround its superstar with complementary pieces.
Then comes the challenge of winning postseason games. A triumph in a best-of-seven series brings the next battle of attrition. The team left standing after surviving four rounds of the most intense basketball is crowned the NBA champion.
The history of the league is highlighted by title teams who defined their eras, but the top spots of the championship scoreboard belong to the NBA's most iconic clubs. Let's take a closer look at the franchises with the most NBA crowns.
The Franchise With the Most NBA Championships
The Boston Celtics have won the most championships in NBA history, capturing their record-setting 18th title in the 2024 NBA Finals by defeating the Dallas Mavericks in five games behind Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.
The Celtics won their first nine championships under legendary head coach Red Auerbach. The architect of the league's greatest dynasty, Auerbach built his teams around arguably the greatest defender ever in Hall of Fame center Bill Russell and a balanced offensive attack armed with multiple double-digit scorers.
Boston earned its first crown in 1957 when it defeated the St. Louis Hawks in seven games. After losing to St. Louis in the 1958 NBA Finals, the Celtics won a league-record eight consecutive championships from 1959 to 1966. Russell also collected four of his five NBA MVP awards during the dominant stretch.
After Auerbach retired from coaching in 1966 to become the team's general manager, Russell took over the C's as the league's first Black head coach. He maintained his role on the court as the anchor of the defense at center and, as player/coach, led Boston to back-to-back championships in 1968 and 1969 for the franchise's 10th and 11th NBA titles.
With shrewd deal-making and wise draft decisions, Auerbach presided over five more Celtics championship runs as GM and team president. He had the foresight to draft Larry Bird as a college junior in 1978 and wait a year before finally signing the Indiana State star. "Larry Legend" revived the Boston dynasty by leading the C's to three titles in six years (1981, 1984, 1986).
The Celtics built around homegrown stars for their last two title-winning teams. In 2008, Paul Pierce, in his 10th season with Boston, won NBA Finals MVP in a six-game series triumph against the rival Los Angeles Lakers, and in 2024, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum — both No. 3 overall picks in 2016 and 2018, respectively — fulfilled their championship potential against the Dallas Mavericks to hang an 18th banner at TD Garden.
“My name—alongside my teammates’—is going to be etched down in Celtics history, which is one of the biggest franchises in not just basketball, in sports," said Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP.
Here is the complete list of NBA championship teams:
Breaking Down the Top Championship-Winning Franchises
Boston remains the gold standard when it comes to NBA championships. However, the team with the most titles this century seized the mantle as the league's glamour franchise.
Since 2000, the Lakers have won six of their 17 banners by constructing championship teams around superstars who rank among the greatest players ever.
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were the towering tandem that achieved a title three-peat in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Bryant—with fellow Hall of Famer Pau Gasol serving as his sidekick—brought two more championships to L.A. in 2009 and 2010.
In 2020, LeBron James and Anthony Davis helped the Lakers come out on top in a season paused by the COVID-19 pandemic. When play resumed in the "bubble" at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, L.A. navigated the weirdness of playing in isolation the best to win the franchise's 17th title.
The San Antonio Spurs also have been a model of NBA excellence over the last three decades. Winning their first NBA Finals in 1999, the Spurs finished on top in 2003, 2005 and 2007 under coaching icon Gregg Popovich. San Antonio's Hall of Fame trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili added the franchise's fifth crown in 2014.
The NBA's modern-day dynasty is the most unlikely. The Golden State Warriors were known for passionate fans despite years of terrible front-office decisions, but the one call they got right was the selection of Stephen Curry with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft.
With Curry and Klay Thompson, the "Splash Brothers" turned the Warriors into serial winners and changed basketball with their unprecedented three-point marksmanship. Curry, Thompson, Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr served as the championship core for four title-winning teams over eight seasons in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Before Golden State's golden age, the Chicago Bulls enjoyed a dynastic run in the 1990s made possible by the greatness of Michael Jordan. The Bulls accomplished championship three-peats twice, winning three consecutive titles in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Jordan won Finals MVP each time.
Mid-Tier Teams With Multiple Championships
The middle tier comprises franchises with proud basketball histories. The Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers all have won three championships.
The "Bad Boy" Pistons won back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990 by playing a physical brand of ball encouraged by Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly. The same grit and toughness was channeled by Larry Brown's Pistons, which upset the Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals.
Dwyane Wade inspired the Heat's first championship in 2006 and helped bring two more Larry O'Brien Trophies to Miami in 2012 and 2013 after joining forces with star free agents LeBron and Chris Bosh.
Teams Still Searching for Their First Championship
Ten current franchises have not won an NBA championship — Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz.
Utah fielded a championship-caliber team in the late 1990s with the Hall of Fame duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone, but unfortunately for the Jazz, they ran into Jordan's Bulls and lost in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals.
Three current teams have NBA titles in their franchise histories but have not won a championship in their current city — Oklahoma City Thunder (Seattle SuperSonics in 1979), Atlanta Hawks (St. Louis Hawks in 1958) and Sacramento Kings (Rochester Royals in 1951).
The Thunder could be raising a banner soon. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads an explosive collection of young, dynamic talents that has posted the best record in the Western Conference the last two seasons, including an NBA-best 68-14 in 2024-25.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Most NBA Championships Broken Down by Franchise.
