Piece by: Michael McCarrick
NBA history is filled with great teams embarking on epic battles in pursuit of championship glory. But for every basketball dynasty there are dozens of franchises suffering underneath them, and those teams are still waiting for their moment in the sun.
But which teams have not only been bad for decades, but snakebitten? Sometimes it’s better to be always losing for a long time than it is to always be so close to the top of the mountain and fall short every time. The St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks haven’t won an NBA championship since 1958, but don’t have enough soul-crushing playoff losses like their inner-city counterparts to make the list of the Top 10 Historically Snakebit NBA Franchises.
This Top 10 list will rank exactly what teams are cursed with an unbelievable amount of bad luck for decades.
10. Milwaukee Bucks
The early days of the Milwaukee Bucks were extremely lucky. After their inaugural season they won a coin toss against the Phoenix Suns to draft ULCA’s Lew Alcindor, the greatest college basketball player of all-time. Within two years Alcindor, Oscar Robertson and the Bucks won the NBA championship and went to another NBA Finals in 1974.
But after six seasons together Alcindor, newly named Kareem Abdul-Jabar, desired to be traded to a bigger market and Milwakluee shipped him to Los Angeles where he played 14 more seasons. Forty-five years since the trade the Bucks still haven’t returned to the Finals. In the ‘80s they made three Eastern Conference Finals in four seasons but always ran into the buzzsaw Celtics and Sixers teams. Their 2001 Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Sixers remains one of the more controversial playoff series in NBA history with an alleged referee bias towards Philadelphia.
And finally there’s the Giannis Antetokounmpo Era where Milwaulkee wasted back-to-back Number one seeds in the East and fell short of the NBA Finals. Fortunately Antetokounmpo has chosen to stay with the Bucks and will give them a check to knock them off this list.
9. Indiana Pacers
Indianapolis is a legendary basketball town and in the early ‘70s the Pacers were an ABA dynasty winning three championships. But their years in the NBA have been a different story. Most of Indiana’s snakebit saga occurred in the ‘90s, where they reached four Eastern Conference Finals in the decade and lost all of them, three of which went to seven games. When they finally made the NBA Finals in 2000 the mighty Kobe/Shaq Lakers were in the way and defeated them in six games.
Four years later Indiana narrowly lost to Detroit Pistons in the conference finals and had their season ruined the next year with the Malice at the Palace incident. About a decade later the Paul George Era Pacers had the misfortune of running into the Miami Heat Big 3 in back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals. Making the third round eight times and only winning once says it all about Indiana’s bad luck.
8. Portland Trailblazers
Their 1977 NBA Championship prevents the Portland Trailblazers from going up higher. The future looked extremely bright in their 1978 title defense with a 50-10 record before league MVP Bill Walton injured his foot. That began an ugly fallout with Walton and Portland fell apart into the ‘80s.
Then with a chance to rejuvenate the franchise in the 1984 draft they selected Sam Bowie with the Number 2 pick over North Carolina’s Michael Jordan. Bowie’s potential as a player was hampered by injuries while Jordan became Jordan. That mistake likely cost Portland multiple NBA championships as they lost the 1990 NBA Finals to the Bad Boy Pistons and the 1992 Finals to Jordan’s Bulls. But the worst loss came in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against Kobe & Shaq’s Lakers, where they blew a 15 point 4th quarter lead. The franchise didn’t recover from that loss in 2000 until the Damian Lillard Era.
7. New York Knicks
Ah...the Knicks. The reason why one of the most popular franchises in all of sports doesn’t top this list is because in the early ‘70s the Knicks were actually the cool team of the NBA. Their dysfunction and futility in the near-five decades since those glory days have been well-documented. Most of their pain came in the ‘90s during the Patrick Ewing Era. With a 2-0 lead over the Bulls in the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals the Knicks lost four straight games despite home court advantage, the highlight being Charles Smith’s series of missed shots at the basket at the end of Game 5.
Then with Michael Jordan retired for the 1994 season New York made the NBA Finals and got a 3-2 series lead over the Houston Rockets, but blew that by losing Game 6 where Hakeem Oljuawon blocked a series-clinching shot by John Starks at the buzzer. In Game 7 Starks shot 2-18 as they narrowly lost the series.
The following year saw a terrible series loss to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals with Reggie Miller’s 8 points in 8.9 seconds in Game 1. In 1997 they blew a 3-1 series lead to the Miami Heat thanks to suspensions of key players due to a brawl on the bench. Their successful but disappointing Ewing Era ended with another Finals berth in 1999 and Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Pacers in 2000. In the two decades since their last Conference Finals trip the Knicks have become one of the biggest Soap Operas in sports thanks to the circus-like ownership of James Dolan.
6. Orlando Magic
The Magic’s fellow 1989 expansion team the Minnesota Timberwolves fell just short of making the cut for only having one deep playoff run in their brief history. Orlando however has stacked decades worth of tragic eras and bad luck in just over three decades. Their luck in the early years were incredible as they won the 1992 draft lottery to draft Shaquille O’Neal out of LSU, and then miraculously did the same next year to land Anfernee Hardaway.
A couple seasons later and the Magic knocked off Jordan’s Bulls en route to their first NBA Finals appearance. With a chance to take a 1-0 series lead against the Houston Rockets, longtime Magic Nick Anderson missed four consecutive free throws in which one would have sealed the game, allowing Kenny Smith to drill a game tying three-pointer and an overtime win. The Magic were swept out of the Finals and the next year were swept in the East Finals by the 72-10 Bulls.
Despite having a young core that was supposed to contend for years, Shaq signed with the Lakers in free agency and Hardaway’s skills diminished with injuries. For Orlando the trend of having young superstars abruptly leaving became a tradition. Tracy McGrady and the Magic had a 3-1 series lead in the first round over the Detroit Pistons before blowing it and falling apart in 2004.
The Dwight Howard years provided some hope in spawning a Finals berth in 2009, only to lose to the Lakers in five games. Over the next couple of years the Dwight Era became the Dwightmare as the team fell apart and sent Howard to the Lakers. In the decade since Orlando remains basketball purgatory.
5. Seattle Supersonics / Oklahoma City Thunder
If this ranking was solely focused on the franchise’s bad luck following their move to Oklahoma City, this team could still make the list. But before their heartbreaking departure to Oklahoma City the Supersonics still had their moments of bad luck.
After winning the 1979 NBA title the team went under the radar in the ‘80s before resurfacing in the ‘90s with Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton. But with the top seed in the Western Conference in 1994 Seattle suffered one of the most humiliating losses in NBA history by losing in the first round to the Denver Nuggets. They did rebound in 1996 by making it back to the NBA Finals, but had the legendary 72-10 Chicago Bulls in the way. But the most devastating moment of them all was being forced out of Seattle just as they drafted a generational talent from Texas named Kevin Durant.
If there’s one consolation prize for Seattle fans is that they were spared the brutal losses in Oklahoma City. Despite drafting three young superstars in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the Thunder didn’t keep them together despite an NBA Finals berth in 2012. They traded James Harden to the Houston Rockets in order to stay under the luxury tax. Unfortunately Harden became a superstar himself while bad luck and injuries kept Oklahoma City from returning to the Finals.
Then they had a remarkable 3-1 series lead over the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference Finals, only to lose three games in a row, including a stunning Game 6 loss. Worst of all, Durant left for the Warriors in free agency and won back-to-back titles. Even with keeping Westbrook and pairing him with Paul George, the Thunder never made it past the first round and wisely decided to blow it up. Three MVPs drafted, only one NBA Finals appearance.
4. Utah Jazz
Having two Top 50 Players of all-time together for nearly two decades and never delivering an NBA championship says it all as to why the Utah Jazz are a historically snake-bit franchise. It took over a decade for the duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone just to make the NBA Finals, but in back-to-back seasons they confronted Michael Jordan at his most Jordan-esque.
With a chance to go up 3 games to 2 in the 1997 Finals and Jordan suffering from the “flu”, Utah failed to capitalize and allowed him to score 38. Chicago would clinch the series in Game 6. The following year with home court advantage and a chance to force a Game 7 at home, Jordan stole the ball from Karl Malone down by 1 point with under a minute to play and hit arguably the most iconic shot in NBA history.
Those two Finals losses remain a part of NBA lore and continue to haunt Utah fans. As Stockton and Malone both left in the early 2000s, the Jazz still seek their first NBA title as a small market team. Even in the bubble season with expectations, Utah blew a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets and nearly won Game 7 on a buzzer beater.
3. Phoenix Suns
The Suns have been lost in the desert the past decade, and even with their impressive undefeated record in the NBA bubble they still couldn’t qualify for the playoffs. But Phoenix’s bad luck came long before their perennial losing in the 2010s. Their finest moment was a game-tying basket to force triple overtime in Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, which Boston still won and subsequently the series.
The ‘80s saw Phoenix under the thumb of the Showtime Lakers before finally breaking out in the ‘90s. With the acquisition of Charles Barkley from Philadelphia, Phoenix made it back to the NBA Finals in 1993 but lost to the Chicago Bulls. John Paxson’s go-ahead shot to win the title for the Bulls remains the last NBA Finals moment for the Suns. More heartbreak ensued in the Barkley era where they lost to the Houston Rockets in the second round of the 1994 playoffs after having a 2-0 series lead, and then again in 1995 after gaining a 3-1 lead.
More heartache ensued in the mid-2000s under Steve Nash and the “7 Seconds or Less” Era. In a loaded conference featuring the Spurs, Lakers and Mavericks, Phoenix could never break through to the Finals. The worst moment was in the 2007 semifinals against San Antonio when a Robert Horry hip-check on Steve Nash caused players to jump out of their seats on the sidelines which led to absurd suspensions. That incident likely swung the series in favor of the Spurs and left the Suns empty-handed again.
2. Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings franchise’s last NBA championship was in 1951 as the Rochester Royals, meaning their title drought has just reached its 70th year. The decades of losing and irrelevance as both the Royals and Kings can be summed up in a single playoff series: The 2002 Western Conference Finals.
The closest Sacramento ever came to a championship and an NBA Finals berth was in that series against their hated rivals the Los Angeles Lakers. With a chance to go 3-1 in the series a last second scuffle at the rim in the closing seconds had the ball land into the hands of the Lakers’ Robert Horry, who hit a game-winning three pointer to even it to 2-2. Then they were potentially robbed of a series clinching win with the most controversial officiating job in NBA history in Game 6.
Conspiracy theories and discussions remain to this day that the league gave officials the incentive to extend the series to 7 games. And finally in Game 7 Sacramento fell apart in overtime for a gut wrenching loss at home. When it looked like they had a chance to redeem themselves the next season, their franchise star Chris Webber suffered a career-altering knee injury in the second round of the playoffs. Nearly two decades later and the Kings franchise still hasn’t recovered.
1. Los Angeles Clippers
After what we saw in the Bubble last summer, how could the Clippers not retain the Number One spot? Five decades have passed since their expansion and the Clippers still haven’t made the Conference Finals. The Clippers originated as the Buffalo Braves before moving to San Diego with the nickname they have today.
Then in the ‘80s owner Donald Sterling moved the franchise to Los Angeles where they became the “other” L.A. and a perennial loser. Finally in the mid-2010s things were starting to look up for the Clippers with the LOB City Era featuring superstars Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. But as soon as they were building some momentum Sterling was exposed to the world as a racist in an ugly scandal that was all over the news.
Things were getting back on track when Sterling sold the team to Steve Ballmer and they had a 3-1 lead in the conference semifinals over the Houston Rockets. Then they inexplicably blew a 19-point lead in Game 6 while James Harden sat on the bench and subsequently lost Game 7. That was the beginning of the end for LOB City, but in 2019 they rebooted the franchise with the acquisition of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
At worst they were supposed to make their first conference finals, but then blew another 3-1 lead in the second round to the Denver Nuggets. Two blown 3-1 leads cost longtime head coach Doc Rivers his job. While they still have Leonard and George with a chance to get off this list, the Clippers remain the NBA’s most snakebit franchise.