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
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.