5 greatest players to never win an NBA championship

1. Charles Barkley

Charles Barkley played in just one NBA Finals during his MVP season in 1992-93 with the Phoenix Suns but the man of many nicknames was a force of nature as an undersized power forward for 16 seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, Suns and Houston Rockets. Named to 11 All-NBA teams,

Barkley was part of a failed superteam in Houston with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler (and later Scottie Pippen after Drexler's retirement). That group reached the Western Conference Finals once and took two first-round losses before Barkley's career-ending leg injury in 1999.

He joined an aging 76ers club in 1984, helping them to the Eastern Conference Finals as a rookie and never getting back, while his tenure in Phoenix peaked with a Finals appearance in his first season after the blockbuster trade that sent him to the desert. The Suns won just one more series before Barkley was sent to the Rockets in 1996.

Sir Charles averaged 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 36.7 minutes per game with an effective field goal percentage of 55.8. In the playoffs, he put up 23.0 points, 12.9 boards and 3.9 assists in 39.4 minutes a night on a 53.0 effective field goal percentage.

Most of the current generation only knows Barkley from his bombastic presence on Inside the NBA but he was a Dream Team member in 1992 and part of the 75th Anniversary Team selected in 2022.