Top 6 NBA Players With No NBA Title

Impressive professional careers don’t guarantee that you have won the most prestigious prize, especially in the NBA. We have seen a few great players who had a wonderful career and are household names in basketball betting, even winning multiple individual trophies, but came up short of claiming the ultimate trophy, the Larry O’Brien championship title.

This unfortunate fate of these NBA greats comes in different factors such as injuries, adversaries and just pure bad luck overall. Talk about staked NBA odds against them. The silver linings are the lasting influence and outstanding individual honors they collected in their respective tenures in the association as a player.

Today, we listed the top seven NBA players (retired) who were unlucky enough not to lift the NBA title and wear a championship ring. Current players such as Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and James Harden are some of the few top names who haven’t tasted a championship in their careers yet.

Elgin Baylor

Being the 1958 top overall pick, an 11-time NBA All-Star and 10-time All-NBA First Team, Elgin Baylor had an illustrious 14-year career with the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers but was short of winning an NBA title. He had eight tries to win in the finals but couldn’t pull it off as the Boston Celtics-led Bill Russell crushed his title aspirations. In the early parts of the 1971-72 season, Baylor was forced to retire due to a knee injury, but it was the same year that his team won the title, making him one of the best NBA players never to win a championship.

Charles Barkley

One regular-season MVP award, 11 NBA All-Star appearances and 5 All-NBA Selections were not enough to win an NBA Title for Charles Barkley. He guided the Phoenix Suns to the 1993 Finals but was beaten by none other than the Chicago Bulls, who were led by Michael Jordan in six games. Still, Barkley became one of the most undersized big men in the league’s history, where he posted career averages of 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists in his 16-year career.

Charles’ MVP season had some major highlights 👀

High Tops: Charles Barkley’s Best Plays – 8:30pm ET on NBA TV! pic.twitter.com/asDDAZWz3U

— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 4, 2020

John Stockton

One of the premier playmakers we have seen in the NBA is John Stockton, and a testament to this is the record for the most assists with 15,806, one of the top unbreakable NBA records. Aside from this record-setting assist number, Stockton also produced a career average of 13.1 points, 10.5 assists, and 2.7 rebounds average in his 19 seasons with the Utah Jazz. Despite this magnificent resume, Stockton failed to win a championship mainly because of the dominant run of the Chicago Bulls in the 90s, as they succumbed to them in two consecutive years in 1997 and 1998.

Karl Malone

John Stockton’s partner in Utah was big man Karl Malone, who is the number two all-time in career points in the NBA with 36,928 behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Malone was also a former two-time NBA MVP,  a 14-time All-Star and 11-time All-NBA 1st team selection. However, these credentials could not help him capture a single title as he reached the NBA Finals thrice in his career in 1997 and 1998 with the Jazz and 2004 with the Lakers, but he lost all of them to Chicago and Detroit, respectively.

Allen Iverson

In just 14 seasons in the NBA, Allen Iverson accomplished the following: win one MVP award, win the rookie of the year honors, make the all-star game 11 times, and be selected for three All-NBA 1st teams. The ‘’Answer’’ also led the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 NBA Finals but were obliterated by the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. This was the only chance for Iverson to be that close to winning an NBA title. Regardless, he became one of the most influential basketball players in history and accumulated a career average of 26.7 points, 6.7 assists and 3.7 rebounds.

Allen Iverson highlights from his 2000-2001 MVP season. 🍿

Nasty. (🎥: @NBA)

https://t.co/2Fkte8ecTI

— Timeless Sports (@timelesssports_) May 15, 2020

Steve Nash

Another dynamic point guard who never won an NBA Championship during his playing career is Steve Nash. Nash won back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and 2006 with the Phoenix Suns. He was also named an all-star eight times and was selected in the All-NBA 1st team three times. He ranks fourth in the all-time assists leaders with 10,335 and is one of only six players to reach the 10,000-mark assists. Even with this incredible career, Nash finished his 18-year playing career ringless. Also, he never made the NBA Finals and only reached the Conference Finals four times.