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Following Wednesday’s comeback victory in the Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals, the New York Knicks are now just three wins away from snapping one of the league’s longest championship droughts.
It has been over 50 years since New York, one of the NBA’s premier franchises, lifted its only championship, when Hall of Famer Willis Reed led the team to a 4-1 NBA Finals rout of the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, despite that fact, the Knicks don’t have anywhere near the longest title drought in league history. In this piece, we’re taking a look at the 10 teams with the longest active streaks in NBA history without lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Longest NBA Championship Droughts
While the Knicks’ streak is one of, if not the most notable on this list, New York can at least claim an NBA championship to its name, which many teams on this list cannot says.
In fact, several NBA franchises have never won it all, and almost every team on the list has gone at least a half-century since their last (or what would be their first).
The two teams on the list under 50 years don’t look particularly close to winning one in the coming years, either, meaning that unless the Knicks prevail this season, there could be 10 NBA teams with a 50-plus-year title drought.
10) Washington Wizards – 48 Years
Much like multiple other teams on this list, the Washington Wizards weren’t even the Washington Wizards when they won their last NBA Championship.
Instead, that honor belongs to the Washington Bullets, who lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 1978 after an incredible seven-game series with the Seattle SuperSonics.
Wes Unseld, who went on to be named the series MVP, hit two key free throws down the stretch despite shooting 55 percent from the line on the season, and the Bullets held on for their lone championship in franchise history.
9) Portland Trail Blazers – 49 Years
The Portland Trail Blazers reached the NBA Finals twice in the 1990s, but fell short both times, losing to the Detroit Pistons in 1990 and the Chicago Bulls in 1992.
Instead, you have to go back to 1977 to find the last time the Blazers won it all, lifting the inaugural Larry O’Brien Trophy in the process under legendary head coach Jack Ramsey.
In 1977, superstar Bill Walton led Portland past Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in a six-game series, with Walton, who’d win the NBA MVP the following season, making a key play to keep the Sixers from tying the key in the waning seconds of Game 6.
T7) Indiana Pacers – 50 Years
The Indiana Pacers were an extremely successful ABA franchise before joining the NBA as part of the merger for the 1976-1977 season.
Since that point, the Pacers have remained successful in the NBA, but have yet to win that elusive first championship, reaching the NBA Finals in both 2000 and 2025.
Last season, Indiana made an improbable run to the NBA Finals and pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were overwhelming favorites, to seven games before eventually falling short.
T7) Brooklyn Nets – 50 Years
Much like Indiana, the Brooklyn (then New Jersey) Nets joined the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 after an impressive run in the ABA, which featured a pair of championships, including the last championship in ABA history.
However, they’ve failed to replicate that success in the NBA, with the closest the organization has come being a pair of NBA Finals trips in back-to-back seasons, 2002 and 2003.
In 2002, the Nets were swept by the powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. They returned to the finals in 2003 against the San Antonio Spurs, but were again felled, this time in six games.
6) Utah Jazz – 51 Years
The Utah Jazz, who were founded as the New Orleans Jazz in 1974 before relocating to Salt Lake City at the end of the decade, have had significant playoff success, particularly under legendary head coach Jerry Sloan.
However, none of that success has ended with a championship, and the franchise largely has Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to blame for that.
Utah was on the wrong side of NBA Finals losses to Chicago in both 1997 and 1998, with the latter ending in Game 6 with Jordan’s iconic step-back, game-winner over Bryson Russell, which was his last shot ever in a Chicago Bulls uniform.
5) New York Knicks – 53 Years
After a seven-game slugfest with the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, the New York Knicks dominated the 1973 NBA Finals en route to a 4-1 victory over the Lakers, with the aforementioned Reed crowned the series MVP.
Since that point, New York has been back to the NBA Finals three times, including this season.
In 1994, Hakeem Olajuwon dominated in an incredible seven-game series that ended with the Houston Rockets winning their first NBA championship, a feat they’d repeat one year later.
Then, in 1999, New York made an improbable finals run as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference only to fall to Tim Duncan, David Robinson, and the San Antonio Spurs in a low-scoring, five-game series.
4) Los Angeles Clippers – 56 Years
Oh, the Los Angeles Clippers…
LA’s basketball bastard son showed up in the city in 1984 after previous stints in San Diego and Buffalo, and things haven’t exactly been glamorous. Not that they were before the relocations.
In their 56 years of existence, not only have the Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers/Los Angeles Clippers never won an NBA Championship, they’ve never even made the NBA Finals.
In fact, the Clippers have only reached the Conference Finals once in history, during the bubble playoffs in 2020-21, when they fell to the next team on our list…
But things are seemingly looking up under new owner Steve Ballmer, who will do whatever it takes to bring a title to Los Angeles’ other NBA team.
3) Phoenix Suns – 58 Years
In their 58-year history, the Phoenix Suns have had three chances to claim an NBA Championship after reaching the NBA Finals, coming up short on all three occasions.
The most recent came in 2021, when Chris Paul, Devin Booker and the Suns fell in six games to the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks.
Prior to that, Phoenix, led by Charles Barkley, lost the 1993 NBA Finals to Michael Jordan and Bulls, while the Suns also lost the 1976 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics in six games.
2) Atlanta Hawks – 68 Years
The Atlanta Hawks are one of the oldest franchises in the history of the NBA, dating back to their time as the Buffalo Bisons in the NBL, starting in 1946.
They then became the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (1946-51), the Milwaukee Hawks (1951-55), and the St. Louis Hawks (1955-68), before settling in Atlanta in 1968.
You have to go all the way back to 1958 and the St. Louis Hawks, led by the legendary Bob Pettit, to find the team’s last and only championship.
Pettit scored a then-Finals record 50 points and pulled down 19 rebounds to lead the Hawks to victory in Game 6 over Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics, and win the series, 4-2.
Ironically, St. Louis had drafted Russell No. 2 overall in the 1956 draft before trading him to Boston.
1) Sacramento Kings – 75 Years
Like the Hawks, the Sacramento Kings have a rich history in the NBA, dating back to their time as the Rochester Royals of the NBL starting in 1945.
The team now known as the Kings made stops in Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Omaha before eventually making their way out to the West Coast and Sacramento in 1985, where they’ve been ever since.
But despite that rich history, the Kings have just two championships, with their last coming all the way back in 1951, when the Rochester Royals, led by Bob Davies, defeated, coincidentally, the Knicks in a seven-game series that saw the Rochester claim a 79-75 victory in front of 4,200 fans at Edgerton Park Arena to claim the championship.
Edgerton Park Arena, which was first opened in 1892 as the drill hall for a training school for delinquent boys, closed down in 1956, and the Kings haven’t been relevant since.