Listing the only 7 NBA teams to lose consecutive finals
The NBA was established in 1946. In 75-odd-years of its existence, the league has seen some incredibly tough teams battle it all out for the title of NBA champions. Whenever there is a winner, there is also someone who came terribly close. In the the premier American basketball league, each season sees a seven-game series finals. The winners of this series are forever enshrined as NBA champions, and the losers as ones that came terribly close.
Listing the teams that have lost two consecutive NBA Finals
For today's list, we take a look at all the teams that lost the NBA Finals in consecutive years. Some of these teams lost three-times in a row, some lost in consecutive finals in multiple decades.
#1 New York Knicks
The New York Knicks are one of the founding teams of the NBA. Established in 1946, the Knicks have won two championships in their long career. However, they were the first ever team to lose in consecutive finals. They lost against the Rochester Royals in 1951 and to the Minneapolis Lakers in 1952 and 1953.
They reached the finals five more times of which they won twice by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in 1970 and 1973.
#2 Fort Wayne Pistons
Now known as the Detroit Pistons, the Fort Wayne Pistons joined the NBA in 1949 as part of a merger between the National Basketball League (NBL) and Basketball Association of America (BAA). The Pistons hold a better championship record than the New York Knicks. The team now located in Detroit conquered the league thrice by defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in 1990 and the LA Lakers in 1989 and then again in 2004.
However, they too lost in consecutive finals thus cementing their position on this list. In 1955, the Pistons reached the finals against the Syracruse Nationals, a team now called the Philadelphia 76ers but lost 4-3. Fort Wayne reached the NBA Finals again in 1956 but lost to the Philadelphia Warriors, now known as the Golden State Warriors.
#3 Saint Louis Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks were known as the Saint Louis Hawks from 1955 to 1968. Before that, they were called the Milwaukee Hawks from 1951 to 1955 and the Tri-Cities Blackhawks from 1949 to 1951.
The team's most successful period was when they were based in Saint Louis. In their 13 years in the city, they appeared in four finals and even bested the Boston Celtics to win the championship in 1958. The Hawks' two consecutive finals came in 1960 and 1961 at the hands of their 1958 rivals. The Boston Celtics, led by Bill Russell, were unstoppable in the 60s.