The Best NBA Team to Never Win a Championship
Even after a stellar regular season display and stacked roaster. There are teams who still couldn't crown it with a championship title. These are the best teams to never win a chip.
In a league where the best team almost always wins, there are a handful of teams that don't follow that logic.
Great rosters, great coaching, great regular seasons, then nothing. No ring. Only what-ifs. These are the teams that haunt NBA history.
The Obvious Answer: The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors
No team in this conversation comes close to the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors. They finished 73-9, breaking the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls record of 72-10 to set the best regular season record in NBA history.
Stephen Curry won the first unanimous MVP award in league history that season, averaging 30.1 points, 6.7 assists, and 2.1 steals per game while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 45.4 percent from three, and 90.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Golden State was also the first team in NBA history to go an entire regular season without back-to-back losses.
They reached the Finals and led the Cleveland Cavaliers 3-1. Then LeBron James happened. The Cavaliers became the first team in NBA Finals history to come back from 3-1 down, winning three straight to claim the title.
The greatest regular season team of all time had nothing to show for it.
Charles Barkley and the 1992-93 Suns
Before the Warriors, the most heartbreaking case was Charles Barkley's Phoenix Suns. Barkley won MVP in 1993, the Suns went 62-20, and it still was not enough.
They reached the Finals and ran into Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, losing in six games. Barkley never got another shot that close.
The Stockton and Malone Era Jazz
Karl Malone and John Stockton combined for arguably the greatest partnership in NBA history that never produced a championship.
Two MVPs for Malone, the all-time assists record for Stockton, and back-to-back Finals appearances in 1997 and 1998.
Both times, Michael Jordan and the Bulls were waiting. Both times, the Jazz went home empty.
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The Verdict
The 2015-16 Warriors are the answer. No team in NBA history was ever that dominant over 82 games and still walked away without a ring.
History remembers the 73 wins. It also remembers Game 7.
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