About this chart race
The NBA title count has been a two-team story for most of its history. The Philadelphia Warriors — today's Golden State Warriors — won the very first championship in 1947, and the Minneapolis Lakers, now the Los Angeles Lakers, took five of the next eight to open an early lead.
Then came Boston. Between 1957 and 1969 the Celtics won 11 championships in 13 seasons, including eight in a row from 1959 to 1966. By 1969 Boston stood on 11 titles while the Lakers were still on 5, a gap no franchise has ever opened again.
The Lakers spent the next fifty years closing it: Showtime in the 1980s, the Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant three-peat from 2000 to 2002, and the 2020 title won in the Florida bubble, which drew them level with Boston at 17 apiece. The Celtics answered in 2024 to move back in front on 18.
The 2026 season ended one of the longest waits in American sport: the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 4–1 for their first championship since 1973, a drought of 53 years.
Titles are counted by franchise, so relocations and renames carry their history with them — Minneapolis to Los Angeles (Lakers), Philadelphia to San Francisco to Golden State (Warriors), Syracuse to Philadelphia (76ers), Seattle to Oklahoma City (Thunder), St. Louis to Atlanta (Hawks), Rochester to Sacramento (Kings) and Baltimore to Washington (Wizards). The Baltimore Bullets who won in 1948 were a different club that folded in 1954 and are listed separately.
This animated ranking shows how cumulative nba championships changed across 21 series between 1947 and 2026. The bars re-order themselves as the years advance, so overtakes are visible as they happen rather than hidden inside a table. Use the list on the left to choose exactly who competes, drag the slider to jump to any year, or open the table view to read the underlying numbers.
As of 2026, Boston Celtics leads with 18 titles.
Included in this race
Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder, Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets, Washington Wizards, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Baltimore Bullets (defunct), Atlanta Hawks.
Source
Data from Wikipedia — List of NBA champions. Check the stated period and methodology. Animated transitions between source observations are visual interpolation, not additional measurements.
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