The Oklahoma City Thunder are your NBA 2024-2025 champions after surviving a group of Pacers who pushed them to seven video games. One of the fascinating features of this sequence, even exterior the video games themselves, was that it was a matchup between two groups within the midst of drought of the championship that vary many years.
The final time the Thunders have been the champions, it was the Seattle Supersonics: it occurred in 1979, 46 years in the past and many years earlier than the group moved to Oklahoma. And the pacer? While they have been champions of the American Basketball Association on three events – 1970, ’72 and ’73 – they nonetheless need to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The drought of the Thunder is over, whereas that of the Pacers clashes in one other yr: 49 years have handed for the reason that pacers have joined the NBA, all with out championship, and even longer than that if you wish to return earlier than the ABA/NBA merger. Focusing on the historical past of the NBA, nevertheless, the sequence with out Pacers championships is “solely” the longest seventh of the League, linked to the Brooklyn networks, which in the identical manner joined the NBA in 1976.
(Related: Thunder dominates Pacers Shorthanding to win the primary NBA title in OKC)
Here are the six groups which have waited longer than the pars (and objectives) for his or her NBA title.
Utah Jazz: 51 years outdated
Karl Malone and John Stockton have made faces like these usually towards the bulls for 2 years of the NBA finals. (Photo by Daniel Lippit/AFP through Getty Images)
Jazz joined NBA in 1974, as a brand new Orleans’ enlargement group. Their greatest participant in these early days was Pete Maravich, but it surely was nearly not sufficient: jazz would transfer to Utah in 1979 and wouldn’t have performed the playoffs for the primary time till the 1983-1984 season. Jazz selected John Stockton within the draft 1984 with the sixteenth alternative and Karl Malone with the thirteenth alternative of a yr later, and thanks largely within the presence of these two Hall of Famers, the jazz would have made the playoffs yearly till the 2003-2004 season.
Utah arrived on the NBA finals in 1997 and 1998, with 64-18 and 64-20 seasons, and would have misplaced Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in each events. The Utah has not returned to the NBA finals since then and within the 2024-2025 season, he recorded the worst file within the championship, at 17-65. To add an insult harm, regardless of having the very best possibilities of the lottery, the Dallas Mavericks gained the primary alternative within the NBA draft of 2025, whereas jazz needed to accept the no. 5.
New York Knicks: 52 years outdated
The final greatest likelihood of the Knicks to win the NBA finals got here towards the Missiles of Hakeem Olajuwon, however New York misplaced the 6 and seven video games. The 1999 finals weren’t so shut. (Photo by John Biever /Sports Illustrated through Getty Images)
The Knicks have had the chance to dry this strip in these playoffs, however misplaced within the finals of the Eastern Conference to the Pacers in six video games. Unlike jazz, they really gained earlier than: the Knicks have been the newest champions in 1973, their second title in 4 seasons, with each groups led by the guard of the celebrity level Walt Frazier.
The Knicks wouldn’t return to the NBA finals till 1994 with Patrick Ewing their nice star. However, they misplaced video games 6 and seven to missiles. The recreation 6 ended with the middle of Rockets Hakeem Olajuwon by blocking a shot in three factors by John Starks, guaranteeing a victory of 86-84 and forcing Game 7, which noticed Starks go simply 2 out of 18 from the sphere in a recreation that the Knicks misplaced solely six factors.
New York would return to the finals in 1999 towards the Spurs, however would have misplaced 4-1, placing them on the other facet of the primary NBA championship of San Antonio. The Knicks have reached twice on the Eastern Conference finals, however no later than.
Los Angeles Clippers: 55 years outdated
The 2020-2021 Clippers compelled a recreation 6 in Los Angeles behind the 41 factors of Paul George and 13 rebounds, however they’d no response to the Suns offense within the decisive race, which misplaced 130-103. (Photo of Harry How/Getty Images)
The Clippers have by no means gained a NBA title, 55 consecutive years. They have been delivered to the championship in 1970 as Buffalo Braves earlier than shifting to San Diego in 1977, the place Clippers have been renamed. In 1984, the Clippers moved once more to Los Angeles, changing into the second group within the metropolis in multiple manner. While the Lakers have gained 9 one other championships since ’84, when the clips arrived in Los Angeles, the Clippers have exceeded precisely a remaining of the western convention, with zero NBA remaining appearances.
It will not be that the clippers have been unhealthy in latest instances: they’ve made the playoffs 13 instances on this century, additionally in 4 of the final 5 years and 12 instances since 2011-2012. However, they have been unable to beat the challenges of the Western Conference, dropping for artists of the caliber of the Nugget on a number of events, the consultant of the finals of the Western Conference of final yr The Mavericks, The Suns within the finals of the Western Conference of 2021 and defeat within the fingers of the Western Conference Champ in 2019, The Warriors.
Phoenix Suns: 57 years outdated
Charles Barkely gained NBA MVP for the 1992-1993 season, however the Suns nonetheless couldn’t cease the bulls within the remaining. (Photo by John W. McDongh /Sports Illustrated through Getty Images)
The Suns entered the NBA in 1968 as an enlargement group, and have been surprisingly competent nearly exterior the gate: they concluded 16-66 of their first season, however closed within the third or fourth of their division for the next six years later, they usually arrived on the 1976 NBA finals regardless of being solely a group 42-40. They misplaced to the Celtics in six video games, nevertheless, and wouldn’t return to this point till ’93, when Jordan’s bulls gained their third NBA title in a row.
After defeating the Clippers to advance to the finals in 2021, the solar lastly met a group that was not a part of a historic dynasty. However, that group nonetheless had Giannis Antetokounmpo, who continued on common over 35 factors per recreation to deliver the {dollars} from 2-0 to 4 in a row and their first NBA championship since 1971, ending their drought.
In 2025, Phoenix missed the playoffs for the primary time from the 2019-2020 season after which after which after which exchanged Star Kevin Durant Ai Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and 6 taking pictures decisions, together with the number of the primary spherical of 2025 of the Rockets. They are the oldest NBA franchise to by no means win a championship as soon as.
Atlanta Hawks: 67 years outdated
The Hawks defeated the Celtics of Bill Russell as soon as, within the NBA finals of 1958, however then by no means his group, nor others, once more. (Getty)
Before they have been the Atlanta Hawks, they have been the St. Louis Hawks. It was the Blackhawk of Milwaukee Hawks and Tri-Cities over time earlier than shifting to St. Louis additionally, however it’s that switch to St. Louis in 1955 that counts right here, as a result of within the NBA finals of 1958, the Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics in six video games.
To put in perspective how way back, Tommy Heinshn and Bill Russell have been each in that Celtics group, they usually have been each 23 years outdated. Bob Cousy was 29 years outdated. Boston had gained his first NBA championship ever the primary season, towards these similar Falchi-i c’e 18 of them, with Russell who ended up with extra rings of the fingers earlier than calling him a profession. The Hawks? They have 1958. They returned to the ultimate each in 1960 and in 1961, but it surely’s all.
The group moved to Atlanta and the Eastern Conference for the 1968 season, and has not arrived on the NBA finals since then: they reached the Eastern Conference finals in 2015, once they misplaced the knights, and once more in 2021, when the Antetokounmpo Bucks knocked them down on their method to end their tightening with no championship. Atlanta has misplaced the playoffs within the final two years.
Sacramento Kings: 74 years outdated
The kings of the Sacrament 2022-2023 took the longest post-stuagional drought within the historical past of the NBA lengthy sufficient to lose towards Steph Curry and warriors. (Photo of Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Unlike alone, cutouts and jazz, the kings Have He gained an NBA championship. The drawback is that it precedes the existence of a type of groups, in addition to the ABA. The Kings joined the National Basketball League in 1945, the place they have been referred to as Rochester Royals-and have been a semi-professional group for over twenty years earlier than. They joined the Basketball Association of America in 1948 with three different NBL groups, after which the NBL and Baa joined the NBA earlier than the 1949 season.
Known once more because the Rochester Royals at this level, they might have defeated the Knicks in 1951 for his or her first NBA championship … which since then turned out to be theirs solely NBA championship. Although it gives the NBA itself, that is additionally the looks of the NBA finals of the franchise. They would transfer to Cincinnati for the 1957 season, then to Kansas City-Omha-dove they might have been renamed Re-Nel 1972. Only the Kansas City Kings would grow to be in 1975, then they might transfer to Sacramento in 1985, the place they’d remained since then. At that second they misplaced two finals of the Western Conference – in 1981 towards the Rockets and in 2002 on the Lakers – however that is sufficient.
From the 2006-2007 season till 2021-2022, the Kings haven’t reached the playoffs, the longest post-setting drought within the historical past of the League. This was briefly taken with an exit within the first spherical towards the soldiers in 2023, regardless of the kings have been the third seed within the West and the soldiers the sixth. They have misplaced the playoffs within the final two seasons: they’ve simply misplaced a file of 46-36 in a area crowded in 2023-2024, then they ended up in ninth as soon as once more however lower than .500 final season.
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