Winning a championship in any sport is hard. The NBA is no exception.
While superstars often dominate the league, not all of them get the chance to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy during their careers. Retiring without a championship doesn't prevent a player's greatness from being appreciated, but it's often the mark of an incomplete legacy.
Dynasties blocked more than a few Hall of Famers from winning championships. The 1990s are littered with greats who never climbed the mountaintop because of Michael Jordan's Bulls, while dominance of the Celtics in the 1960s and Lakers in the 1980s prevented other generations of stars from winning it all.
The Sporting News ranks the 13 best players who never won an NBA championship, from Charles Barkley to Chris Paul.
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13. Carmelo Anthony
- Deepest playoff run: Western Conference Finals (2009)
- Playoff record: 28-55
Carmelo Anthony was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 2025, putting to bed any concerns that his lack of playoff success would hinder his candidacy.
Anthony didn't win a championship or even make an NBA Finals appearance in his 19 NBA seasons. His deepest run came in 2009, when he and the Nuggets fell to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, and he only advanced past the second round once in his career.
In the regular season, Anthony was one of the best scorers of his era. His 28,289 points rank top-10 in NBA history, and he averaged more than 20 points per game in each of his first 14 seasons despite never translating it to prolonged playoff success.
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12. Reggie Miller
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (2000)
- Playoff record: 76-68
While the list of stars who didn't win a championship has plenty of players with a reputation for postseason underperformance, it probably isn't fair to describe Miller that way. He largely did what he could with the Pacers, reaching the playoffs 15 times in 18 seasons and authoring some deep runs, including a trip to the NBA Finals in 2000.
Like Patrick Ewing and the Knicks, Miller and the Pacers were victims of the Bulls' dynasty in the 1990s, often blocking Indiana's path to a championship. Still, Miller averaged two more points per game in the playoffs than he did in the regular season and was over .500 in playoff games.
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11. George Gervin
- Deepest playoff run: Conference finals (4 times)
- Playoff record: 25-34 in NBA, 9-16 in ABA
George Gervin was the face of the Spurs and instantly one of the NBA's best players when San Antonio made the transition from the ABA in 1976, but his tremendous scoring ability never translated to a championship or an NBA Finals appearance. Gervin reached the conference finals four times after the merger, but he never played for a championship in either the ABA or NBA despite San Antonio's status as a perennial playoff team.
Gervin was a five-time All-NBA First Team selection, finishing as the MVP runner-up twice and leading the league in scoring four times.
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10. Dominique Wilkins
- Deepest playoff run: Conference semifinals (1986, 1987, 1988)
- Playoff record: 22-34
Dominique Wilkins was a force for more than a decade with the Hawks, averaging 28 points per game over his 10-year peak and earning nine consecutive playoff appearances.
Unfortunately for Wilkins, his peak largely coincided with the Celtics' dominance of the Eastern Conference in the 1980s. He never got past the second round, making three consecutive appearances in the East semifinals in the back half of the 1980s. The Hawks came the closest in 1988, when they had a 3-2 series lead over Boston, but the Celtics won the final two games and sent Wilkins home disappointed once again.
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9. Allen Iverson
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (2001)
- Playoff record: 30-41
A year after Reggie Miller broke through and earned his first trip to the NBA Finals, a much younger Allen Iverson got his shot at the mighty Lakers in 2001. Iverson played one of the best games of his playoff career in Game 1, upsetting L.A. in overtime, but the 76ers lost the final four games of the series and never again came that close to a championship with the dynamic guard.
Iverson was the NBA's MVP in 2000-01 and led the league in scoring four times with the 76ers, averaging as many as 33 points per game in season, but 2001 marked his foray past the second round in an otherwise stellar career.
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8. Chris Paul
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (2021)
- Playoff record: 76-73
Chris Paul isn't the best player on this list, but he might be the most shocking player without a championship because he has played for so long on so many talented teams. One of the most intelligent players in the NBA with uncanny passing abilities, Paul has appeared in 149 playoff games and played alongside names such as Blake Griffin, James Harden, Devin Booker in his prime.
The future Hall of Famer has had two close calls in his pursuit of a championship, including an NBA Finals appearance in 2021. Before Paul and the Suns blew a 2-0 lead in the Finals, he was one win away from dethroning the Warriors with the Rockets in the 2018 Western Conference Finals until a hamstring injury kept him out of Games 6 and 7. Houston blew a double-digit lead in both games, and the Rockets missed a prime opportunity to go into the NBA Finals as decisive favorites to win a title.
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7. John Stockton
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (1997, 1998)
- Playoff record: 89-93
One of the most gifted floor generals in NBA history, former Jazz star John Stockton appeared in a whopping 182 playoff games but struggled to break through alongside Karl Malone. Utah didn't reach the Western Conference Finals until Stockton's ninth season, and it wasn't until year No. 14 that the Jazz finally won the West and punched their ticket to the NBA Finals.
It's hard to fault Stockton and the Jazz for losing to Jordan and the Bulls in back-to-back years, but those losses left the Hall of Famer without a championship ring.
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6. Patrick Ewing
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (1994, 1999)
- Playoff record: 72-67
As was the case with Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing was largely blocked by the Bulls from winning a championship in his prime — but that doesn't apply to every year. Ewing and the Knicks stood one win away from a title in 1994 before losing Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the Rockets.
The painful defeat was one of many for the Knicks in the 1990s, with New York closely battling the Pacers, and even the Bulls at times, but coming up short in some key moments. The Knicks returned to the NBA Finals in the twilight of Ewing's career, but he missed the series with an injury and New York was defeated handily by the favored Spurs.
A no-doubt Hall of Famer, Ewing was an 11-time All-Star and averaged a double-double in nine consecutive seasons during his peak.
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5. Steve Nash
- Deepest playoff run: Western Conference Finals (2003, 2006, 2010)
- Playoff record: 57-63
Another highly-respected floor general who didn't win a championship, Steve Nash won back-to-back MVPs with the Suns but never reached the NBA Finals, let alone won a championship.
He made three Western Conference Finals appearances, losing in six games each time, and his best shot might have come with the Mavericks in 2003 before an injury to Dirk Nowitzki made Dallas a considerable underdog against the Spurs.
Nash hoped to make his deepest playoff run after joining what was widely viewed as a Lakers super-team with Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard in 2012, but L.A. flamed out and lost in the first round of the playoffs.
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4. James Harden
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (2012)
- Playoff record: 90-83
James Harden has received plenty of scrutiny for his inconsistency in the playoffs, but he had plenty of close calls over the years that left him short of a championship. A sixth man on the Thunder team that reached the NBA Finals in 2012, Harden got the keys to his own franchise in Houston and made multiple trips to the Western Conference Finals.
On two occasions, injuries potentially derailed his best paths to a title. The Rockets led the Warriors 3-2 in the 2018 Western Conference Finals before co-star Chris Paul went down with a hamstring injury that kept him out of the final two games, while the Nets were championship favorites in 2021 before one injury took Kyrie Irving out of the series and another limited Harden's effectiveness in a narrow second round loss to the Bucks.
An MVP, finalist for MVP five times and three-time NBA scoring leader, Harden ranks among the best players without a ring.
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3. Elgin Baylor
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (8 times)
- Playoff record: 72-62
Elgin Baylor is a unique case, as he played nine games for the Lakers in 1971-72 before retiring due to injury. L.A. went on to win a championship after a decade of coming up short against the Celtics, but Baylor isn't credited with a title given he wasn't a member of the team at the time.
When he was on the court, Baylor was one of the NBA's most prolific players, leading the Lakers to the NBA Finals eight times and averaging 27.4 points per game across 14 seasons. With seven top-five MVP finishes under his belt and the decades-old record for most points in a Finals game with 61, Baylor has a place in NBA history — but he and the Lakers consistently fell victim to Boston's powerhouse.
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2. Charles Barkley
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (1993)
- Playoff record: 62-61
If you've watched "Inside the NBA," you might already know Charles Barkley never won a championship. Barkley happily accepts the jokes about his ring-less career, which saw him win an MVP and average a double-double in every season but one. Barkley reached the NBA Finals at the end of his MVP season in 1993, also his first year in Phoenix, but the Suns weren't a match for the dominant Bulls.
A Hall of Famer and 11-time All-Star, Barkley has just about every accolade other than an NBA championship.
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1. Karl Malone
- Deepest playoff run: NBA Finals (1996, 1997)
- Playoff record: 98-95
Jazz legend Karl Malone holds the NBA record for most playoff games without a championship, having appeared in 193. Playing alongside Stockton, Malone made the Jazz a perennial playoff team, but it wasn't until his age-33 season that Utah broke through and reached the NBA Finals. The Jazz didn't have the offense to keep up with Jordan and the Bulls, and they were denied in both 1997 and 1998.
Malone seemingly had a great chance to cross a title off his bucket list with the Lakers in 2004, but he missed half the season with an injury and aggravated it during the Finals, which L.A. lost to the Pistons.
Malone was a two-time MVP, scoring 36,928 points and earning 14 All-NBA and All-Star selections. His career stands as the greatest of any player who never got their hands on the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
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