NBA: 5 Franchises with the Longest Championship Droughts

One of the hardest things for a sports franchise and a fan base is to not reach the pinnacle of the mountaintop, winning your league's championship. In recent years, we saw two of the longest title droughts in the NBA ended, as the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers reached the mountaintop of champagne showers and parades.

What makes this such a hard drought to break, is basketball is dominated so much by a singular player. Due to only five players being on the court at the same time, the best player will have a disproportionate amount of influence on the action when compared to other sports. In the NBA, this bears out with how few teams have actually won titles.

For example, since the NBA/ABA merger, 14 teams have won the 41 titles, with eight teams winning multiple titles. Simply put, if you get one of the best five players in the league, you end up winning multiple titles and it's hard to get one of these players.

#5 Milwaukee Bucks, last title 1971 - 46 Years

Kareem Abdul-Jabaar shakes the hand of an opponent after defeating him in the Finals.

Currently the only team on the list that has a chance to win the title this year, and it's a long shot at that. Fitting in perfectly with needing a top-five talent to win the title, the Bucks won their only title in the third year of existence on the back of second-year player Kareem Abdul-Jabaar. They advanced to their only other Finals in 1974 with Kareem leading the way again, losing to the Boston Celtics in the championship round.

They traded Kareem after the 1975 season and have been chasing their early success ever since. They have only made the conference finals four times since that trade, showing how hard it is to climb the mountain in the NBA. Only recently did they end up with another top 5-7 talent in the league in Giannis Antetokounmpo and they are trying to find a way to surround him with talent so maybe he can end their title drought.

They have had stretches of sustained success, most notably during the 80s as they kept running into the Celtics and Detroit Pistons, teams who actually had those top-flight individual talents you need to clear the final hurdle.

The Bucks will be going to the Playoffs this year for the third time in Giannis's career, but they don't have the team around him that gives them a realistic shot at ending their drought. While you need that top guy, you also need a supporting cast that complements the star and can hold the team above water when the star sits. Right now, the Bucks are Giannis and a collection of solid to below average players, leaving them several steps away from title glory.

#4 Los Angeles Clippers, never won - 47 years

Chris Paul can't believe he just choked away game 5 vs the Thunder in 2014.

Quite possibly the worst franchise in NBA history, not even reaching the conference finals in a history that has spanned 3 cities and 48 seasons. Before 2012, they hadn't even won more than 50 games in a season. This franchise has been snake-bitten by injuries, bad management, and weird luck, never able to string together players and teams with any consistency.

People thought this might be broken when Chris Paul was traded to the Clippers in 2011, teaming up with rookie of the year Blake Griffin, and after a few years of learning the ropes together, they seemed primed to make a championship breakthrough. 2013-2015 saw the team win 57 and 56 games, reaching the conference semifinals with momentum and belief that they were the best team.

In 2014, Paul self-combusted in the last 30 seconds of a perceived win in game 5 vs the Oklahoma City Thunder that would have given them a 3-2 lead. Two days later they were eliminated on their home court. The next season, they coughed away a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter of game 6 vs the Houston Rockets, in a series they were up 3-2 before losing in game 7. Those two series were as close the Clippers have ever gotten to even sniffing a Finals series.

Now, they have no Chris Paul or Blake Griffin, no All-Star on their team to help recalibrate and hope to end their title drought. They are on the outside looking in at the West playoffs and don't have any hope of upsetting the top two seeds if they get there. Even worse, they don't have a young player who can develop into a top 5 player in the league and very little assets with which to acquire one. The Clippers seem to be back in their normal place of being one of the forgotten franchises in the league.

#3 Phoenix Suns, never won - 50 years

Charles Barkley stretches for a Finals game, the last time the Suns franchise made it that far. — Charles Barkley stretches for a Finals game, the last time the

Another franchise that hasn't seen a ticker tape parade through their city streets. The Phoenix Suns have been a relatively successful franchise, including making the playoffs in 19 of 22 years from 1989-2010, but have never been able to taste that final victory. They have two finals appearances in their history, 1976 and 1993, losing both times in six games to superior teams.

You look back on some of the Suns' teams and see just how close they were to breaking through and winning it all. In 1993, they had league MVP Charles Barkley and won 62 games, but when it came down to championship time, they couldn't get past the more experienced Chicago Bulls. When Steve Nash came to the team in 2004, they had another MVP to lead the way, but untimely injuries and suspensions derailed them in each of the next three seasons. Despite one of the most innovative offenses in the league, they never could even break through to the Finals.

Now, the Suns are going to miss the Playoffs for the eighth straight season and win under 25 games for the third straight. Devin Booker may be a player that can help lead them back to the Playoffs, but, as of now, has shown nothing that makes you think he will develop into a top 5 talent. The Suns are a long way from ending their Playoff streak, much less winning their first title, and need to start developing more of their early first round draft picks they have been getting if they want to see the light of day.

#2 Atlanta Hawks, last title 1958 - 60 years

Bob Pettit is the best player in franchise history and led them to their only title.

It's been 60 years since the Hawks franchise has tasted championship glory, and the city of Atlanta has never seen it. The Hawks won their only title when they were the St. Louis Hawks, defeating the Bill Russell led Boston Celtics, right before the Celtics ripped off eight straight titles. This early Hawks team was one of the best in the small NBA, making the Finals four times in five years and since have never returned to the championship round.

They have been a pretty successful franchise through the years, stringing together playoff streaks of seven and 10 years, but they have never been blessed with a top 5 talent on their team. They have shown they can be highly competitive, even winning 60 games and earning the one seed in the East in the 2015 season. But that year was a perfect encapsulation of their franchise, as they were really good but ran into a LeBron James-led team that just had a player who was vastly superior to anyone on their team.

Now, after 10 straight playoff appearances, they have chosen to go full rebuild and are currently 20-49. They have never been able to attract a top 5 talent in free agency, so it's fitting they have chosen the draft as the best way to find this talent. Currently, they are giving a lot of run to young players, hoping they can round into top-flight role players and complementary starters so when they draft a top 5 player they are ready to compete for titles.

#1 Sacramento Kings, last title 1951 - 67 years

This is the last team to win a title for Kings franchise.

The Kings won their only title as the Rochester Royals and have never been back to the championship round. They moved to Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha, and then Sacramento and have been chasing the championship success in every city. They are one of the oldest franchises in the league, playing for 70 seasons and being one of the worst to do it. Even currently, they haven't made the Playoffs for 11 seasons and it will soon be 12 when this year concludes.

The closest they have been to tasting championship glory was in 2002, where they lost game 7 at home to a Los Angeles Lakers team that was finishing off their threepeat. They had one more season the next year where they were truly a title contender before Chris Webber injured his knee in the Conference Semifinals and have had no realistic chance of ending their title drought since. They had hoped their drafting of DeMarcus Cousins on 2010 would help lead them out of this malaise, but after his petulant attitude and failing to surround him with any semblance of consistency, they traded him last season and decided to rebuild again.

Now, the Kings are hoping De'Aaron Fox and whoever they draft early in the 2018 draft will be the foundational pieces to lead them back to the playoffs and end their now 68-year drought. Focusing on sound team building and making smart trades to acquire more draft assets to give them a chance of finding role players is a must. They have been zigging and zagging too much in the last eight years or so, giving them no hope of even entertaining the thought of making the Finals and ending their drought.