NBA
How Many NBA Championships Has LeBron James Won?
Simply put, LeBron James is easily one of the greatest players in NBA history.
Now, where exactly he ranks on that list has long been a topic of debate. And that will undoubtedly continue long after the NBA’s all-time leading scorer plays his last game.
Thankfully, however, we don’t have to debate how many NBA championships LeBron James has won during his illustrious career. We just simply have to count. And that number, of course, is four. LeBron has also lost in the NBA Finals on six occasions, although his team was the underdog in all but one of those instances.
But let’s not focus on the losses today. Here’s a quick recap of the NBA championships won by LeBron James.
LeBron James won two NBA titles with the Miami Heat
After seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers to begin his NBA career, LeBron James famously took his talents to South Beach and signed with the Miami Heat ahead of the 2010-11 campaign.
James played four seasons with the Heat and led them to the NBA Finals in each and every one of them. After being upset by Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, LeBron led Miami back to the title series in 2012, winning his second NBA MVP award in the process.
Squaring off with Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, James averaged 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 1.6 steals as Miami easily took the series in five games. Given the strong stat line, LeBron took NBA Finals MVP honors.
A year later, the Heat were back in the title series, this time facing Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron, who’d won his second consecutive NBA MVP trophy, also earned a second straight NBA Finals MVP award as he averaged 25.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 7.0 assists, and 2.3 steals per game as Miami won the series in seven.
LeBron won his third championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers
After four years in Miami, LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers ahead of the 2014-15 season and promptly led them to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Golden State Warriors.
One year later, the two teams met again, and the Warriors were heavy favorites, having won a record 73 games during the 2015-16 regular season. And things certainly looked bleak for the Cavs when Golden State took a 3-1 series lead in the 2016 NBA Finals.
But LeBron refused to quit and led Cleveland to three consecutive victories to close out the series, winning his third NBA championship as well as his third NBA Finals MVP trophy. In the epic seven-game set, James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals, and 2.3 blocks.
James won his fourth NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers
After four years in Cleveland, LeBron James took his talents to the Western Conference for the first time and joined the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of the 2018-19 season.
After missing the postseason in his first year in Hollywood, James took the Lakers to the NBA Finals following the 2019-20 campaign, which was suspended for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and concluded in the Orlando bubble.
After defeating the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, and Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference portion of the postseason bracket, LeBron & Co. defeated the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals in six games. Averaging 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists, and 1.2 steals, James won Finals MVP for the fourth time and became the first to win the award for three different teams.