The NBA community is rejoicing in OKC’s WCF exit and the fact that we have 8 straight years of unique NBA champions. This is the longest streak in NBA history. This got me thinking what is the second longest streak? A little research and I see it’s 6 years, between 1975-1980.
**From 1975 to 1980, there were 6 consecutive years of unique NBA champions:**
1975: Golden State Warriors
1976: Boston Celtics
1977: Portland Trail Blazers
1978: Washington Bullets
1979: Seattle SuperSonics
1980: Los Angeles Lakers
In this time, there were 2 teams to win their sole NBA championship. In back-to-back years the Blazers and Bullets (Wizards) won their only titles to date. Until last year, it was 3 straight years, as the Sonics (now the Thunder) were also one time champions until OKC’s title win in 2026.
**The next longest streak in NBA history of unique champions is 5, occurring between 1971-1975 and 1977-1981.** From 1981 to 2021 (once this streak started), the longest streak of unique champions is 3 years.
What’s even more mind boggling is that from 2020 to 2026, no same team from either the Eastern or Western Conferences has made the Finals in back-to-back years, meaning **there has been unique NBA Finalists in back-to-back seasons for 7 years**. The Warriors made the Finals in 2018 and 2019, but since then, no team has done it in consecutive years. If anyone wants to do the numbers on the second longest streak, I’d be very curious to know the answer. I imagine it’s at most 4 years of consecutive unique NBA Finalists.
From 2021 to 2026, the Boston Celtics are the only team to make the NBA Finals multiple times.