Every NBA champion since the league's first title in 1947, listed by season. Each team has its own page with the regular-season record, the Finals result, the full roster, and the story of how they won it, from George Mikan's Lakers to the latest banner.
The Philadelphia Warriors won the first championship in pro basketball's modern line, taking the 1947 BAA Finals from the Chicago Stags four games to one. Joe Fulks carried them, scoring 23.2 points a game to lead the new league by a wide margin in a season when most teams struggled to reach 70 as a unit. Eddie Gottlieb both ran the franchise and coached it from the bench.
The Baltimore Bullets joined the BAA for the 1947-48 season and won the championship in their first year in the league, beating the Philadelphia Warriors four games to two. Buddy Jeannette ran the team as player-coach, led it in assists, and shot the best field-goal percentage in the league. Kleggie Hermsen, a 6-9 center, was the leading scorer.
Minneapolis won the 1949 BAA title in its first season in the league, with George Mikan leading the way at 28.3 points a game. The Lakers beat Red Auerbach's Washington Capitols four games to two in the Finals. They had already won the rival NBL championship the year before, so this was a title in a second league in as many seasons.
The 1950 Minneapolis Lakers were the first NBA champions, winning the title in the season the BAA and NBL merged into one league. George Mikan led the NBA in scoring at 27.4 a game, and Minneapolis beat the Syracuse Nationals four games to two in the Finals. A reserve forward on that team, Bud Grant, later coached the Minnesota Vikings to four Super Bowls.
The Rochester Royals won the 1951 NBA Finals over the New York Knicks in seven games, the only championship in a franchise that has run from Rochester to Sacramento. Arnie Risen and Bob Davies led a balanced team with no real weak spot. Rochester won the first three games, then held on after the Knicks pushed it to a deciding seventh.
Minneapolis beat the New York Knicks in seven games to win the 1952 NBA title, the first championship after the league doubled the width of the foul lane to slow George Mikan down. Mikan still led the team at 23.8 a game. Vern Mikkelsen and Jim Pollard gave the Lakers two more frontcourt scorers in the 15-point range.
Minneapolis won the 1953 NBA title by beating the New York Knicks four games to one, the second of three straight championships. George Mikan led the team at 20.6 points and pulled down more than 14 rebounds a game. The Knicks reached the Finals three years running in this stretch and lost every time, the last two to the Lakers.
The 1954 Minneapolis Lakers beat the Syracuse Nationals in a seven-game Finals to complete the first three-peat in NBA history. George Mikan led the team a final time at 18.1 points before his first retirement. Rookie Clyde Lovellette gave the Lakers a second scoring big man behind him.
The Syracuse Nationals won the 1955 NBA title, the first championship of the 24-second shot clock era, a clock their own owner Danny Biasone had pushed the league to adopt. Dolph Schayes led them at 18.5 points and 12 rebounds a game. They beat the Fort Wayne Pistons in a seven-game Finals decided by a single point in the last game.
The Philadelphia Warriors won the 1956 NBA title, their first championship since the league's debut season nine years earlier. Paul Arizin led the NBA in scoring at 24.2 a game and Neil Johnston added 22.1, giving Philadelphia two of the league's top scorers. They beat the Fort Wayne Pistons four games to one in the Finals.
The 1956-57 Celtics won the first championship in franchise history, and two rookies changed the team overnight: Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn. Boston went 44-28, then outlasted the St. Louis Hawks in a Game 7 that needed two overtimes. It remains the only NBA Finals Game 7 ever decided past a single extra period.
The 1957-58 St. Louis Hawks are the only team in that franchise's long history to win an NBA title. They beat the Boston Celtics in six, a year after losing to them in a double-overtime Game 7. Bob Pettit closed the clincher with 50 points, including 19 of his team's last 21.
The 1958-59 Celtics produced the first sweep in NBA Finals history, brushing aside the Minneapolis Lakers in four straight. Boston went 52-20 with Bill Russell controlling the glass and Bob Cousy setting the table. The Lakers they swept were carried by a rookie named Elgin Baylor.
The 1959-60 Celtics went 59-16, the best record the franchise had posted, and beat the St. Louis Hawks in a seven-game Finals. Bill Russell set a single-game Finals rebounding record with 40 in Game 2. Boston closed the series with a 19-point win in Game 7 at home.
The 1960-61 Celtics went 57-22 and won their third straight title, beating the St. Louis Hawks in five. It was Bill Sharman's last NBA game, and Boston closed the series with him on the floor. Russell finished the clincher with 30 points and 38 rebounds.
The 1961-62 Celtics were the first team in NBA history to win 60 games, finishing 60-20. They survived the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven-game Finals decided in overtime, after Frank Selvy missed an open jumper at the buzzer that would have won it for Los Angeles. Bill Russell grabbed 40 rebounds in that Game 7 and 189 for the series, a record that still stands.
Bob Cousy played his last season in 1962-63 and went out a champion. The Celtics went 58-22 and beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six for their fifth straight title. A rookie named John Havlicek arrived that year and led the team in minutes off the bench.
The 1963-64 Celtics won their sixth straight title, the first without Bob Cousy. Defensive guard K.C. Jones took over at the point and Boston still won 59 games. The Finals brought the first Bill Russell-Wilt Chamberlain meeting on that stage, with Boston beating Chamberlain's San Francisco Warriors in five.
The 1964-65 Celtics won 62 games, a league record at the time, and beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five for their seventh straight title. They reached the Finals on John Havlicek's steal in the closing seconds of Game 7 against Philadelphia, one of the most replayed plays in the sport. Tom Heinsohn played his final game in the clincher.
The 1965-66 Celtics won their eighth straight championship, a record no North American team has matched. They finished second in their own division during the regular season, then beat the Los Angeles Lakers in seven. It was Red Auerbach's last game as coach, and he had already named Bill Russell as his replacement.
The 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers went 68-13, the best regular-season record the league had seen, then beat the San Francisco Warriors in six for the title. Wilt Chamberlain spent the year passing and defending as much as scoring, leading the NBA in rebounding while shooting 68 percent from the floor. The loudest statement came in the division finals, where Philadelphia ended Boston's run of eight straight championships.
The 1967-68 Boston Celtics finished second in the East at 54-28, then beat the Lakers in six to win the title. Bill Russell did it as a player-coach, the first man to win a championship running the team from the floor. The road there was the hard part: Boston trailed Philadelphia three games to one in the division finals before winning three straight.
The 1968-69 Celtics limped into the playoffs fourth in the East at 48-34, then won three rounds and beat the Lakers in seven for the title. It was Bill Russell's last season as player and coach. In the deciding Game 7 in Los Angeles, Don Nelson's jumper bounced high off the rim and dropped, and the road team won an NBA Finals Game 7 for the first time.
The 1969-70 Knicks won the franchise's first title, going 60-22 and beating the Lakers in seven. Willis Reed took home MVP, All-Star Game MVP, and Finals MVP in the same year. His limping entrance before Game 7, two baskets and then little else, remains the most replayed moment in team history.
In only their third season, the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks went 66-16 and swept the Baltimore Bullets to win the title. Lew Alcindor, soon to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, led the league in scoring and took both MVP awards. Oscar Robertson, finally on a winner at 32, ran the backcourt and never had to wait again.
The 1971-72 Lakers won 69 games, a record that stood for 24 years, and beat the Knicks in five for the franchise's first title in Los Angeles. In the middle of that season they won 33 games in a row, still the longest streak in major American team sports. Wilt Chamberlain, by then a defender and rebounder more than a scorer, was named Finals MVP.
The 1972-73 Knicks went 57-25 and beat the Lakers in five, flipping the exact result Los Angeles had handed them a year earlier. It was the franchise's second title and its last for more than half a century. Every one of New York's five starters is in the Hall of Fame, the most recent champion that can say so.
The 1973-74 Celtics went 56-26 and beat the Milwaukee Bucks in seven for their first title of the post-Russell era. Dave Cowens, a center barely 6-foot-9, held his own against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and John Havlicek took Finals MVP. Boston clinched on the road, winning Game 7 by 15 in Milwaukee after losing a double-overtime Game 6 to a Kareem skyhook.
The 1974-75 Golden State Warriors went 48-34 and swept the heavily favored Washington Bullets to win the title. Rick Barry, shooting his free throws underhand, led the league in scoring at 30.6 a game and took Finals MVP. Rookie forward Jamaal Wilkes won Rookie of the Year, and almost nobody outside the Bay Area saw the sweep coming.
The 1975-76 Celtics went 54-28 and beat the Phoenix Suns in six for the franchise's thirteenth title. Jo Jo White won Finals MVP, playing 60 minutes in the deciding stretch. Game 5 ran three overtimes and finished 128-126, the game many still call the greatest in NBA history.
The 1977 Portland Trail Blazers won the only title in franchise history, and they did it in the first playoff trip the team had ever made. Bill Walton ran the show, leading the league in both rebounding and blocked shots while Jack Ramsay's passing offense moved around him. Maurice Lucas supplied the scoring and the muscle. Portland dropped the first two games of the Finals to Julius Erving's 76ers, then won four in a row.
The 1978 Washington Bullets reached the Finals with a modest 44-38 record, then beat the Seattle SuperSonics in seven games to win the franchise's only NBA championship. Wes Unseld took Finals MVP despite averaging under 10 points, doing his damage on the glass and with outlet passes. Elvin Hayes and Bob Dandridge supplied the scoring. Washington won the deciding Game 7 in Seattle, the rare road close-out in a Finals.
The 1979 Seattle SuperSonics won the only championship in the franchise's history, beating the Washington Bullets in five games for revenge after losing to them in the Finals the year before. Dennis Johnson took Finals MVP, and Gus Williams led all playoff scorers. Jack Sikma anchored the middle. The team that won it now plays in Oklahoma City.
The 1980 Los Angeles Lakers won the title in Magic Johnson's rookie season, beating Philadelphia in six. The clincher is the one everyone remembers: with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar home nursing a sprained ankle, Magic started at center in Game 6 and put up 42 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists. Kareem was the regular-season MVP. The Lakers had two head coaches that year after a bicycle accident sidelined the first.
The 1981 Boston Celtics won 62 games and the title in Larry Bird's second season, the first championship of the new Big Three era. Cedric Maxwell took Finals MVP. Boston trailed Philadelphia 3-1 in the conference finals and won three straight, including a one-point Game 7. They then beat a Houston team that had finished the regular season below .500.
The 1982 Los Angeles Lakers won their second title in three years, sweeping their way to the Finals and beating Philadelphia in six. Magic Johnson took Finals MVP at age 22, his second in three seasons. The year began in chaos when Johnson pushed for a coaching change 11 games in and the Lakers handed the job to Pat Riley.
The 1983 Philadelphia 76ers went 65-17 and rolled through the playoffs, losing only one game on the way to the title. Moses Malone won both the regular-season and Finals MVP awards and famously predicted a sweep with the word fo'. They swept the Lakers in the Finals to make it close to true. Julius Erving finally got his NBA ring.
The 1984 Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games to win the title, renewing the rivalry that defined the decade. Larry Bird won both the regular-season and Finals MVP. Kevin McHale took Sixth Man of the Year. The deciding stretch included a Game 5 played in a sweltering Boston Garden with no air conditioning.
The 1985 Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in six games, the first time the franchise had ever won a Finals against Boston after eight losses dating back to the Minneapolis years. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took Finals MVP at age 38. The Lakers got there after a Game 1 humiliation Boston fans called the Memorial Day Massacre.
The 1986 Boston Celtics went 67-15 and beat the Houston Rockets in six to win the title, the third of the Bird era and the one many call the best of the bunch. Larry Bird won both the regular-season and Finals MVP. Bill Walton, picked up in a trade, won Sixth Man of the Year. Boston went 40-1 at home in the regular season.
The 1986-87 Lakers went 65-17 and beat the Boston Celtics in six to win the franchise's tenth title. Magic Johnson took both the regular-season MVP and the Finals MVP after a year averaging 23.9 points and 12.2 assists. The series swung on his running hook over Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in the final seconds of Game 4, a shot he called his junior skyhook.
After the 1987 parade, Pat Riley publicly guaranteed the Lakers would repeat, a promise no team had kept since the 1969 Celtics. They made good on it, going 62-20 and outlasting the Detroit Pistons in a seven-game Finals. James Worthy clinched it with the only triple-double of his career, 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists in Game 7.
The 1988-89 Pistons won 63 games and swept the Lakers to take the first championship in franchise history. Joe Dumars was Finals MVP at 27.3 points a game, and Dennis Rodman won Defensive Player of the Year as the Bad Boys finally broke through. Detroit was the last of the NBA's original eight charter franchises to win a title.
The Pistons repeated in 1990, winning 59 games and beating the Portland Trail Blazers in five. Isiah Thomas took Finals MVP, scoring 33, 23, 21, 32, and 29 across the series. Vinnie Johnson, nicknamed the Microwave, ended it with a jumper that left 0.7 seconds on the clock.
Chicago won its first championship in 1991, going 61-21 and beating the Lakers in five games. Michael Jordan won the regular-season MVP and the Finals MVP, but the Bulls got there only after sweeping the Detroit Pistons, who had eliminated them three years running. Jordan lost Game 1 of the Finals at home, then never lost another game in the series.
The 1991-92 Bulls were better than the team that won the first title, finishing 67-15 and beating the Portland Trail Blazers in six. Michael Jordan won his second straight Finals MVP. He opened the series by hitting six three-pointers in the first half of Game 1, then turned to the bench and shrugged.
The 1993 Bulls completed the first three-peat since the 1960s Celtics, beating Charles Barkley's 62-win Suns in six. Michael Jordan averaged 41.0 points across the Finals, still the record. The title-winner, though, came from John Paxson, whose three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in Game 6 turned a one-point deficit into a 99-98 win.
Houston won its first title in 1994, going 58-24 and beating the New York Knicks in seven low-scoring games. Hakeem Olajuwon swept the major awards, becoming the first player to win regular-season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP in the same season. He sealed Game 6 by blocking John Starks at the buzzer.
The 1995 Rockets repeated despite finishing only 47-35 and entering the playoffs as the sixth seed, still the lowest seed ever to win a title. Houston swept Shaquille O'Neal and the Magic in the Finals, and Hakeem Olajuwon won his second straight Finals MVP. The key move was a February trade that brought home Clyde Drexler, Olajuwon's old University of Houston teammate.
The 1995-96 Bulls won an NBA-record 72 games and beat the Seattle SuperSonics in six for the title. In his first full season back from baseball, Michael Jordan took the scoring title and the MVP, All-Star, and Finals MVP awards in the same year. Dennis Rodman, the rebounding champion they had taken a chance on, grabbed 19 boards twice in the Finals.
The 1996-97 Bulls went 69-13 and beat the Utah Jazz in six for their fifth title in seven years. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen carried it, but Steve Kerr hit the jumper that won Game 6 after Jordan drew the double team and kicked it out. Backing them up was Robert Parish, 43 years old and finishing his career as the oldest man in the league.
The 1997-98 Bulls finished 62-20 and beat the Jazz again, this time in a rematch, to win a sixth title in eight years. Jordan closed it himself in Game 6, scoring 45 and hitting the jumper over Bryon Russell with the season on the line. It was the last shot of his Bulls career.
The Spurs won their first title in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, going 37-13 and beating the New York Knicks in five. Tim Duncan and David Robinson formed the Twin Towers, with Duncan taking Finals MVP at 23. They also became the first former ABA team to win an NBA championship.
Phil Jackson's first Lakers team went 67-15 and beat the Indiana Pacers in six for the franchise's first title since 1988. Shaquille O'Neal swept the regular-season MVP, the All-Star MVP, and the Finals MVP in the same year. He scored 41 to close out Game 6.
The 2000-01 Lakers went 56-26, then tore through the playoffs at 15-1 to repeat as champions, beating the Philadelphia 76ers in five. Their only loss came in Game 1 of the Finals, when Allen Iverson dropped 48 in overtime. Shaquille O'Neal won his second straight Finals MVP.
The 2001-02 Lakers went 58-24 and swept the New Jersey Nets to finish a three-peat, the franchise's first since the early 1950s. Shaquille O'Neal took his third straight Finals MVP. The harder series came earlier, when Robert Horry's buzzer-beater in Game 4 saved them against Sacramento.
The 2002-03 Spurs went 60-22 and beat the New Jersey Nets in six for their second title. Tim Duncan won both the regular-season MVP and the Finals MVP, closing the series with a near quadruple-double. It was David Robinson's last game, and he grabbed 17 rebounds on the way out.
The 2003-04 Pistons went 54-28 and upset the heavily favored Lakers in five for their first title since 1990. They did it without a star, built around Ben Wallace's defense and a midseason trade for Rasheed Wallace. Chauncey Billups won Finals MVP, and Detroit held one Finals opponent to 68 points.
The 2004-05 Spurs went 59-23 and beat the defending-champion Pistons in a seven-game Finals for their third title. Tim Duncan took his third Finals MVP. The series turned on Robert Horry, who scored 21 in Game 5, including the overtime-winning three, after being scoreless into the fourth quarter.
The 2005-06 Heat went 52-30 and won the franchise's first title, beating the Dallas Mavericks in six after losing the first two games. Dwyane Wade carried the comeback, averaging 34.7 for the series and 39.3 over the final four. Pat Riley had taken back the coaching job from Stan Van Gundy partway through the season.
The 2006-07 San Antonio Spurs went 58-24 and swept LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals for the franchise's fourth title in nine years. Tony Parker tore through the series for 24.5 points a game and took Finals MVP, the first European player to win it. Three of the four games were decided by single digits, which is easy to forget about a sweep.
Boston went 66-16 in 2007-08 after winning just 24 games the year before, the biggest one-season turnaround the league had seen. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen arrived in trades to join Paul Pierce, and the new trio beat the Lakers in six for the franchise's 17th title. Pierce, who grew up in Inglewood rooting for the Lakers, took Finals MVP against them.
The 2008-09 Lakers went 65-17 and beat Dwight Howard's Orlando Magic in five for the franchise's 15th title. Kobe Bryant averaged 32.4 points in the series and won his first Finals MVP without Shaquille O'Neal. The trade that made it possible was a steal a year earlier: Pau Gasol from Memphis.
The 2009-10 Lakers repeated, beating the Celtics in seven games in a rematch of the 2008 Finals. Kobe Bryant won his second straight Finals MVP, though he shot 6-for-24 in the deciding game and won it on the glass and at the line. Ron Artest, brought in to defend, hit the dagger three in Game 7.
Dallas won its first championship in 2011, beating the heavily favored Miami Heat in six games. Dirk Nowitzki averaged 26 points and took Finals MVP, then walked off the floor before the final buzzer because he was too emotional to stay. The Mavericks erased a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit in Game 2 to even the series and never trailed in it again.
Miami won the 2012 title in LeBron James's second season with the Heat, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in five. James took the first championship and Finals MVP of his career and finished the clincher with a triple-double. The lockout-shortened season ran only 66 games, and Miami went 46-20.
The 2012-13 Heat went 66-16 and ripped off a 27-game winning streak, the second longest in NBA history. They repeated as champions by beating the San Antonio Spurs in seven, the series Ray Allen rescued with a corner three to force overtime in Game 6. LeBron James scored 37 in Game 7 and won his second straight Finals MVP.
San Antonio went 62-20 and avenged the previous year's loss by beating Miami in five for its fifth title. Kawhi Leonard, 22 years old, took Finals MVP by guarding LeBron James and scoring efficiently. The Spurs won by such wide margins that their average margin of victory in the series was the largest in Finals history.
Golden State went 67-15 and won its first title in 40 years, beating LeBron James and the Cavaliers in six. Andre Iguodala came off the bench all season, then moved into the starting lineup in Game 4 and won Finals MVP. He was the first player to take the award without starting a single game in the regular season.
Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the 73-win Warriors in 2016, the only team to do that in Finals history. LeBron James led both clubs in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks for the series and won Finals MVP. The title ended a 52-year championship drought for the city.
The 2016-17 Golden State Warriors won 67 games and then nearly went undefeated in the playoffs, finishing 16-1 on the way to the title. Kevin Durant signed that summer, left the Thunder team that had just pushed Golden State to seven games, and poured in 35.2 a night against Cleveland to win Finals MVP. Their only postseason loss came in Game 4 of the Finals, the closest the rest of the league got all spring.
The 2017-18 Warriors repeated, sweeping LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the Finals for Golden State's third title in four years. Kevin Durant won Finals MVP again, and Stephen Curry set a Finals record with nine threes in Game 2. The harder series came earlier: down 3-2 to Houston in the conference finals, Golden State watched the Rockets miss 27 straight three-pointers in Game 7.
The 2018-19 Toronto Raptors won the only NBA title in franchise history, beating the two-time champion Warriors in six games. Kawhi Leonard, acquired in a one-year gamble of a trade for DeMar DeRozan, won Finals MVP in his single season in Toronto. He also hit the most famous shot in team history, a corner buzzer-beater that bounced on the rim four times before falling against Philadelphia.
The 2019-20 Lakers won the title inside the Disney World bubble, the strangest championship run in league history, beating the Miami Heat in six. LeBron James won his fourth Finals MVP and Anthony Davis, acquired the summer before, anchored both the paint and the perimeter. They played the entire year in the shadow of Kobe Bryant, who died in January.
The 2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks won their first title since 1971, beating the Phoenix Suns in six after falling behind 0-2. Giannis Antetokounmpo closed the series with 50 points in Game 6. Jrue Holiday, acquired that offseason, swung Game 5 with a steal and an alley-oop lob to Giannis in the final minute.
The 2021-22 Warriors won their fourth title in eight years, beating the Boston Celtics in six. This one came after a fall: Kevin Durant was gone, Klay Thompson had missed two and a half years to a torn ACL and then a torn Achilles, and Golden State had missed the playoffs twice. Stephen Curry finally won his first Finals MVP at 34.
The 2022-23 Denver Nuggets won the first championship in franchise history, beating the Miami Heat in five games. Nikola Jokic, a second-round pick taken 41st overall, won Finals MVP and put up numbers no center had matched in a Finals. The night Denver drafted him in 2014, ESPN cut to a Taco Bell commercial.
The 2023-24 Boston Celtics went 64-18 and lost only three games in the entire playoffs, beating Dallas in five for the franchise's record 18th title. Jaylen Brown won Finals MVP, edging teammate Jayson Tatum. One offseason of trades for Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday turned a good team into the clear favorite.
The 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder won 68 games and the franchise's first title since the move from Seattle, beating the Indiana Pacers in a seven-game Finals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander swept the honors, taking the scoring title, regular-season MVP, and Finals MVP in the same year. They were the youngest team to reach the Finals since the 1977 Trail Blazers.
The 2025-26 New York Knicks won their first title in 53 years, beating the San Antonio Spurs in five games. Jalen Brunson won Finals MVP, the first Knick to take the award since Willis Reed in 1973. New York trailed by double digits in every one of its four wins, including a 29-point comeback in Game 4 that stands as the largest in Finals history.
