Fifty-three years ago, a gallon of gas cost less than 50 cents, Richard Nixon sat in the Oval Office and the first “Star Wars” movie was four years away.
It’s no wonder that New York Knicks fans were enthusiastic this weekend; they haven’t celebrated a win this big since then.
Saturday’s victory marks the end to one of the longest championship droughts in the league’s history, according to an NBC News analysis of NBA data going back to the 1946-47 season, when the league was in its Basketball Association of America era.
The Knicks have gone the longest without a championship among teams with at least two titles to their name. In the one-championship club, the Kings, now in Sacramento, California, and the Hawks, now in Atlanta, have endured more years without a subsequent title. And of the NBA teams that have yet to win a first championship, the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Clippers have gone longer.
Ten current NBA franchises have never won a championship. While some of these franchises are relatively young — like the New Orleans Pelicans, founded in 2002 — others have played decades without a title. The Phoenix Suns, founded in 1968, have not seen a title in their 58-year history. The Los Angeles Clippers, established as the Buffalo Braves in 1970, haven’t even been to the NBA Finals.
Among champions, dry spells happen. The Milwaukee Bucks endured a 50-year drought from 1971 to 2021; the Oklahoma City Thunder, a 46-year period between wins; and the Golden State Warriors went 40 years between their third and fourth championships. Droughts that long, however, are relatively rare.
Twenty-three back-to-back championships have been won, most recently by the Warriors in 2017 and 2018. Another 10 titles were won by the same team within two years of its most previous win, according to the analysis.
Readers might recall the Warriors’ dominance from 2015 to 2022, when the team took home four titles in those years. The Chicago Bulls dominated the 1990s, winning six trophies from 1991 to 1998.
Most notable are the Boston Celtics: The 18-time NBA champions landed an eye-popping nine titles in the 1960s alone.
The Knicks are one of the NBA’s most enduring franchises. Alongside the Celtics and the Warriors (known in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors), the Knicks are one of only three teams that have persisted since the league’s inaugural season.
