There are about 30 teams in each of the four major North American team sports leagues, and the majority of all those squads have made it to the championship round at least once. For some, it’s been an extremely long time since they won that title, or at least got extremely close.
NBA
While five franchises have never made it to the NBA Finals (the Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, and Charlotte Hornets), the one that hasn’t been to the last round of the playoffs is the Sacramento Kings. It won the fifth iteration of the NBA Finals in 1951, when the team was known as the Rochester Royals and before moves to Kansas City and Sacramento. The Atlanta Hawks last went to the Finals in 1961 as the St. Louis Hawks, capping a run in which they made it that far four times in five years, winning it all in 1958.
NHL
While boasting a grammatically incorrect name, the Toronto Maple Leafs are an original member of the NHL, one of the six foundational franchises, all of which remain in the hockey organization and all of which have contended for a Stanley Cup in the 21st century. But not the Maple Leafs. The franchise dominated the early years of organized league hockey, going to 21 Stanley Cup Finals appearances from 1918 on, and regularly throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1960s. In 1967, the same year that the NHL doubled from six teams to 12, the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. That’s the last time they’ve been to the Stanley Cup Finals, let alone won it all.
MLB
There’s only one team out of 30 current Major League Baseball franchises that’s never appeared in the World Series, and that’s the Seattle Mariners, playing in the American League since 1977. For the last 40-plus years, almost every other team has cycled through good and bad years and contested a World Series. Absent from the conversation most every year: the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates, however, haven’t been since they won it all in 1979. They haven’t even made it to the National League Championship series since 1992.
NFL
It feels like the New York Jets have been a punchline for years, synonymous with “losing football.” It’s not an exaggeration — they haven’t represented the AFC in a Super Bowl since it was called the AFL. That was back in the 1968-69 season, when Joe Namath led his squad to a 16 to 7 victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Another notably long-suffering team: the Minnesota Vikings. No Super Bowl has featured that franchise since Super Bowl XI in 1977 — which the Vikings lost, just like it did in its three other ‘70s Super Bowl appearances.
