The Los Angeles Lakers are the team with the most NBA Championships in California, they have 17 titles, one of the most recent being during the 2020 NBA Finals. On the other hand, the Golden State Warriors are the second team in the state with the most titles (7).
The state of California has four NBA teams, they all play in the Pacific Division, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers and Kings while the only team that plays within that division that does not belong to the state is the Phoenix Suns.
Only the Lakers and Warriors have won the NBA Championship in the 21st century, but the Kings have not won a ring since the last century (1951) and the only one of the four Californian teams that does not have a ring are the Los Angeles Clippers.
What is the strange connection that all NBA teams in California share?
The ‘weird’ connection between all of the current NBA teams that play in the state of California is that they were originally from other states when they were founded and they played in other states before relocating to Calfornia.
1. The Los Angeles Lakers before playing in California were known as the Minneapolis Lakers from 1948 to 1960 and left Minneapolis due to poor fan attendance per season.
2. Golden State Warriors originate from Philadelphia and in that city they were known as the Philadelphia Warriors from 1946 to 1962. The franchise left Philly since the new owner was from San Francisco.
3. The Los Angeles Clippers had a very different name than they have today, the Buffalo Braves, they played in New York from 1970 to 1978 when they were sold to Irv Levin of California. In 1978 they changed their name from the San Diego Clippers to the Los Angeles Clippers since their new owner, Donald Sterling, wanted the team in his city.
4. Sacramento Kings were also relocated due to poor fan attendance per season, they were born as the Kansas City Kings in 1975 and it wasn’t until 1985 that they moved to California and changed their name.
