Last year, I was inspired to write an article about NBA championship droughts after the Oklahoma City Thunder won the 2024-25 NBA Championship, snapping a franchise-long drought that went back to their Seattle SuperSonics days in the 1978-79 season. But I had the idea for that article before the Thunder won the title. I quote from my survey:
Living in New York City, I noted some excitement about the deep playoff run of the New York Knicks, which have an even longer championship drought going back to the 1972-73 season.
The Knicks were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025. However, the Knicks regrouped and have reached the 2026 NBA Finals, doing so for the first time since 1999. While it is, as of publication time, yet to be determined whether the Knicks will win their first NBA Championship since 1972-73, their run has inspired me to tackle a new topic. Last year we covered championship droughts. Today we cover NBA Finals droughts.
Survey Parameters
I am interested in how long NBA franchises went between Finals appearances, specifically the longest “droughts.” For example, let us look at the Knicks’ opponent in the 2026 NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs are no strangers to the Finals — in fact they defeated the Knicks back in 1999. The Spurs made their first Finals appearance in 1999 (1998-99 season) and second in 2003 (2002-03 season). There were three NBA Finals not featuring the Spurs between 1999 and 2003. Thus, for the purpose of this survey, we would say that the 2003 Spurs ended a three season Finals drought.
With that established, I will note a few other rules and points to consider.
- My survey includes all NBA seasons (1949-50 to present) and three Basketball Association of America (“BAA”) seasons (1946-47 through 1948-49). I am not counting the National Basketball League (“NBL”) (1935-36 through 1948-49) or the American Basketball Association (“ABA”) (1967-68 through 1975-76), both of which merged into what is now the NBA (see BAA-NBL merger and NBA-ABA merger).
- We are concerned with “franchises.” The current Golden State Warriors have made the NBA Finals in three guises: Golden State Warriors, San Francisco Warriors, and Philadelphia Warriors. We will count this as a single franchise. The Oklahoma City Thunder are another example since they moved on from being the Seattle SuperSonics beginning with the 2008-09 season.
- In order to have gone X number of years between Finals appearances, a franchise must have made at least two Finals appearances. Thus, the Denver Nuggets, which made just one NBA Finals appearance (2022-23) and the Los Angeles Clippers, which has never appeared in the NBA Finals since entering the NBA as the Buffalo Braves in 1970-71, will not have entries on our survey.
Longest Broken Droughts
Without further ado, I present the longest broken championship droughts. I limited our list to each instance when more than ten seasons elapsed between an NBA franchise’s Finals appearances.
| Rank | Drought(Years) | Franchise | Made Finals | Prior Finals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 46 | Milwaukee Bucks | 2021 | 1974 |
| 02 | 39 | Golden State Warriors | 2015 | 1975 |
| 03 | 31 | Detroit Pistons | 1988 | 1956 (FWP) |
| 04 | 27 | Phoenix Suns | 2021 | 1993 |
| 05 | 26 | New York Knicks | 2026 | 1999 |
| 06 | 24 | Indiana Pacers | 2025 | 2000 |
| 07 | 20 | Boston Celtics | 2008 | 1987 |
| 07 | 20 | New York Knicks | 1994 | 1973 |
| 09 | 17 | Philadelphia 76ers | 2001 | 1983 |
| 10 | 16 | Seattle SuperSonics (OKC) | 1996 | 1979 |
| 10 | 16 | Phoenix Suns | 1993 | 1976 |
| 10 | 16 | New York Knicks | 1970 | 1953 |
| 13 | 15 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 2012 | 1996 (SEA) |
| 14 | 13 | Orlando Magic | 2009 | 1995 |
| 14 | 13 | Detroit Pistons | 2004 | 1990 |
| 16 | 12 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 2025 | 2012 |
| 16 | 12 | Dallas Mavericks | 2024 | 2011 |
| 16 | 12 | Portland Trail Blazers | 1990 | 1977 |
| 19 | 11 | San Antonio Spurs | 2026 | 2014 |
| 19 | 11 | Boston Celtics | 2022 | 2010 |
| 19 | 11 | Philadelphia 76ers | 1967 | 1955 (SYR) |
The New York Knicks’ 26 seasons between Finals appearances is the fourth longest broken Finals drought in NBA history. We established in my previous article that with their 2020-21 Championship, the Milwaukee Bucks set a new mark for the biggest gap between titles, with their previous title having come in 1970-71. The Bucks also hold the current mark for biggest gap between Finals appearances, with their previous having come in 1973-74 (coincidentally one season after the Knicks’ most recent championship). Also above the Knicks are the Golden State Warriors, which not only in 2014-15 ended a streak of 39 non-Finals appearances since their 1974-75 championship run, but began what would be a streak of five consecutive Finals appearances, and the Detroit Pistons in 1987-88. One could miss the Pistons because their previous Finals appearance in 1955-56 came as the Fort Wayne Pistons. One fun note: The Bucks and Pistons droughts were so long that their bookend Finals appearances came in different conferences. The 1973-74 Bucks and 1955-56 Fort Wayne Pistons were Western Division/Conference Champions while their latter Finals teams were Eastern Conference Champions.
Right behind the Knicks, we have last year’s Eastern Conference Champions (who had defeated the Knicks in the 2025 East Finals), the Indiana Pacers, which made their first NBA Finals appearance since 2000. The Pacers had defeated the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals in both of their NBA Finals seasons (2000 and 2025), but the Knicks had defeated the Pacers in the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals.
While the Knicks do not have the longest Finals drought, they are the only franchise represented three times in our top-10. The Knicks went 20 no-finals seasons between 1973 and 1994 and 16 between 1970 and 1953, the latter coming at the end of three consecutive Finals appearances (and defeats) for the Knicks. The only other franchise with three Finals droughts of at least 10 seasons is the Oklahoma City Thunder/Seattle SuperSonics.
The Knicks’ opponent in the upcoming 2026 Finals, the San Antonio Spurs, make the end of our list in a three-way tie for the 19th longest Finals Drought. The Spurs, after making (and winning) their first Finals appearance in 1999, went on to make the Finals in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, and 2014, none of which made for long droughts. But this is the Spurs’ first appearance since 2014, which just barely gets them on our list.
I will conclude by noting one remarkable absence from our list. The Los Angeles Lakers most-recently made the NBA Finals in 2020. They first made the NBA Finals in the inaugural “NBA” season, 1949-50. Since 1950, the Lakers have not at any point had 10 consecutive seasons with no Finals appearances: Their longest stretch was 9 between their most recent 2020 Finals appearance and 2010.
Longest Unbroken Droughts
Next, let us look franchises which have gone at least 20 seasons since their most recent Finals appearances.
| Rank | Drought (Years) | Franchise | Most Recent Finals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 75 | Sacramento Kings | 1951 (ROC) |
| 2 | 65 | Atlanta Hawks | 1961 (STL) |
| 3 | 47 | Washington Wizards | 1979 (WSB) |
| 4 | 34 | Portland Trail Blazers | 1992 |
| 5 | 31 | Houston Rockets | 1995 |
| 6 | 28 | Chicago Bulls | 1998 |
| 6 | 28 | Utah Jazz | 1998 |
| 8 | 25 | Philadelphia 76ers | 2001 |
| 9 | 23 | Brooklyn Nets | 2003 (NJN) |
| 10 | 21 | Detroit Pistons | 2005 |
The Sacramento Kings have gone 75 years since their most recent Finals appearance, in a sense, at least. The Kings have been the NBA’s most well-traveled franchise. In 1951, the Kings played in New York, Rochester to be specific. The NBA was small then, so the Rochester Royals represented the Western Conference in the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks, making for the NBA’s first and only all-New York State Finals. The Royals jumped out to a 3-0 Finals lead against the Knicks, only for the Knicks to come back to tie the series a 3-3 before the Royals prevailed 79-75 in game seven of the Finals to win the franchise’s first, and to date only, championship. The franchise made their division/conference finals in 1952, 1954, 1963, 1964, 1981, and 2002, losing on all six occasions and coming one game short in four. The Sacramento Kings were painfully close in 2002, having held a 3-2 series lead against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers and losing game seven at home in overtime. Had the Kings held on to defeat the Lakers in 2002, that would have been the record for longest gap between Finals appearances (1951-2002).
The second longest drought is owned by what are now the Atlanta Hawks. In their St. Louis days, they made four Finals appearances in five seasons from 1957 to 1961. The Hawks met the Boston Celtics in all four Finals, winning the 1957-58 championship but coming up short in 1957, 1960, and 1961. The Hawks made 6 division finals in eight seasons from 1962-63 to 1969-70 (they moved from St. Louis to Atlanta in 1966-67), but lost all six. After 1970, it would take the Hawks until 2014-15 to make the Eastern Conference Finals, and they were unceremoniously swept. The Hawks returned to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, where they lost to the Bucks in what may have been the greatest finals drought series in NBA history.
The Washington Wizards last made the NBA Finals as the Washington Bullets in 1978-79. That was their third Finals appearance in five years and the fourth in nine. Since then, the Bullets/Wizards have won just five playoff series and made no conference finals, much less NBA Finals, appearances.
Four franchises have yet to make a Finals appearance since the 1990s. The Portland Trail Blazers last made the Finals in 1992. The Blazers last made the Western Conference Finals in 2000, where they held a 3-1 series lead against the Los Angeles Lakers and led by as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter of game 7. Alas, the Blazers, like the Kings two years later, fell to the eventual champion Lakers. The Rockets, which last made (and won) the Finals in 1995, made the West Finals in 1997 (fell 4-2, losing game 6 against the Jazz on a buzzer-beater by John Stockton), 2015, and in 2018. The Rockets led the Warriors 3-2 in the 2018 West Finals and may have won what was a competitive game 7 had they not shot 7-44 from three point range. (To be fair though, I am sure a few Knicks fans watched the Rockets’ struggles in game 7 of the 2018 West Finals and thought of John Starks’ 2-18 performance in game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals, in which the Knicks came up short against the Rockets 90-84.) The Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz met in the 1998 NBA Finals, which remains the most-watched series in NBA history. Since then, they have combined for two Conference Finals appearances, with the Jazz falling in the 2006-07 West Finals and the Bulls in the 2010-11 East Finals.
The Droughts That Will Never End
While every NBA season brings with it hope, we can say for certain that several franchises will never break their championship droughts. The Chicago Stags (1946-47 West Champions), the original Baltimore Bullets (not the second version which would become today’s Washington Wizards) (1947-48 East and BAA Champions), and Washington Capitols (1948-49 East Champions) will never break their droughts because they no longer exist. I will note however that every franchise to have made an NBA Finals (the first “NBA” season was 1949-50) still exists today.
NBA Finals Drought Summary
I conducted this NBA Finals drought survey for fun and I do not think there is much to take away from it. Finals droughts are not equal. The Milwaukee Bucks, which hold the record for longest appearances between NBA Finals, had some genuinely excellent teams in that period, especially in the 1980s and subsequent close Finals calls in 2000-01 and 2018-19. So too did the Phoenix Suns in the 1994-2020 drought period and the Indiana Pacers from 2001-2024. Conversely, the Golden State Warriors (1976-2013), Fort Wayne/Detroit Pistons (1957-87) and New York Knicks (2000-2025) did not have many championship or Finals caliber teams during their drought periods.
Now that the 1999 and 2000 Eastern Conference Champions ended their Finals droughts in consecutive seasons a quarter-century after their most recent Finals appearances, dare the 2001 Eastern Conference Champion Philadelphia 76ers, 2002 and 2003 Eastern Conference Champion Brooklyn Nets (then the New Jersey Nets), and 2004 and 2005 Eastern Conference Champion Detroit Pistons dare hope that their turns may be next if the trend holds?
