As one of the biggest sporting competitions around, basketball fans can’t wait for the NBA Finals.
Thirty teams compete in 82 regular-season games with the hopes of qualifying for the playoffs. Only 16 will make it, and just eight will advance to the second round.
We’re now down to the final four, and everything is on the line in these high-pressure games, especially as NBA playoffs betting odds heat up for casual and diehard bettors alike.
For the two teams that survive the Conference Finals round, they don’t just have the opportunity to be crowned the best— they’re also one step closer to being presented with an NBA championship ring.
Throughout NBA history, countless talented professionals have reigned supreme in the playoffs, surpassing other stars and taking home more NBA rings in the process. Some players have racked up more than others.
To celebrate these top performers, let’s take a look at the players with the most NBA rings.
11 rings: Bill Russell has more rings than anyone else
With a staggering 11 NBA Championships to his name, the late-great Bill Russell had plenty of rings to store away somewhere, probably in a special cabinet.
Russell’s 14-year career clearly went to plan. The 12-time All-Star won NBA championships with the Boston Celtics in 1957, eight straight from 1959-66, and two more in 1968 and 1969. This record is almost sure to stand the test of time.
Bill Russell is an icon who the basketball community will never forget.
10 rings: Sam Jones is another Decorated Celtics legend
Alongside Russell for his entire career, Sam Jones is another Celtics legend with double-digit rings to his name.
Jones arrived to the NBA just after Russell won his first title in 1957. The two spent 12 seasons together, elevating Boston to 10 NBA Championships. The late shooting guard is one of 22 Celtics to have his jersey retired.
8 rings (tie): Heinsohn, Jones, Sanders, Havlicek
A four-way tie for third entails four more Boston Celtics, who were also teammates of Bill Russell and Sam Jones.
Tom Heinsohn
Tom Heinsohn is yet another Celtics icon.
The legendary power forward saw three 20+ point-per-game seasons during the heart of his prime. He continued his success as the Celtics’ head coach from 1969-1978, and won two more championships to complete a fruitful coaching career.
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K.C. Jones
Up next is K.C. Jones, another Boston Celtic with eight rings. Between 1959 and 1966, no team could come close to the Celtics. They were a dangerous opponent, with the likes of Jones being a key cog to the ship’s wheel. Like Heinsohn, Jones built on his successes as a player by leading the Celtics to two more championships as head coach in the 1980s.
Satch Sanders
Tom “Satch” Sanders was yet another Celtic who saw great success in the 1960s with the Celtics, winning eight championships. He even had a brief two-year stint as the team’s head coach in the late 1970s, but didn’t see the same success as his former teammates turned coaches.
John Havlicek
The sixth Celtic on this list rounds out the four-way tie of eight-ring players. Havlicek primarily saw his success during the bountiful 1960s, but won two more under former teammate Tom Heinsohn in 1974 and 1976.
7 rings: Robert Horry, Jim Loscutoff, Frank Ramsey
Robert Horry is the only non-Celtic with seven championship rings.
He managed this across three teams (Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs) and won multiple championships with each franchise.
His greatest playoff moment was perhaps in Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The Lakers trailed by as much as 24 points, but Horry’s heroics capped off LA’s epic comeback.
Had Horry not made this shot, the Lakers would have fallen behind in the series 3-1, which had never been done at that point in NBA history. The Lakers eventually won the series in seven, and cruised to a four-game sweep of the New Jersey Nets to win the 2002 NBA Finals.
It was Horry’s fifth ring and third straight in Los Angeles.
6 rings: Kareem, MJ, Scottie, Bob Cousy
Our six-ring lineup consists of a number of NBA legends. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and one more Celtic of the ’60s, Bob Cousy.
Kareem won a title with the Bucks in 1971 and proceeded to dominate the 1980s with the Lakers. Jordan and Pippen were side by side in the Bulls’ decade of dominance in the 1990s. Cousy didn’t win his first title until his seventh NBA season, but found six of his own alongside numerous of his aforementioned Celtics teammates.
5 rings and below
In the 5-and-below crew, we have 13 players with five rings, and 18 with four rings. Zero active players have five rings, and only LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are active players with four rings.
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