NBA Championships by team: Teams with most titles

3 - Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat

The Sixers, the Pistons and the Heat are the only 3 franchises to have won NBA titles thrice in the history of their franchises.

The Sixers won their first championship as the Syracuse Nationals in 1955, before they moved to Philadelphia in the wake of the departure of the Warriors' franchise to San Francisco. After spending nearly all of Wilt's prime on teams that couldn't beat the Boston Celtics in the playoffs, the Sixers finally mustered enough Hall of Famers to take on and beat their nemesis in the summer of '67. The Sixers' third title came in '83 when they swept the Lakers in the Finals with a team spearheaded by Finals MVP Moses Malone and Dr. J.

The Pistons came to power for the first time in the NBA in the years that followed Philly's championship. Lead by one of the greatest point guards of all time in Isiah Thomas, the Bad Boy Pistons made it to 3 straight NBA Finals from 88 to 90, winning the latter two series handily. Their 3rd title was one of the biggest upsets in the modern NBA as their team of scrappy, defensive players overran the star-studded Kobe-Shaq Lakers 4-1 in the 2004 NBA Finals.

The Heat's trio of titles is pretty easily the toughest achievement of the 3. The only expansion franchise to have won a title, the Heat were also contenders for a while during the 90s before a year-long tank led to adding Dwyane Wade to the roster in 2003. Wade combined with Shaq and a team of battle-hardened veterans to win the NBA championship over the Mavericks 4-2 in 2006, before teaming up with LeBron James and Chris Bosh to win 2 titles in 4 championship appearances from 2011 to 2014.