Teams That Have Never Reached the Finals

Now that the Toronto Raptors have appeared in (and won) an NBA Finals game for the 1st time, I wanted to see how many teams were still waiting for their 1st appearance in their sport's finals.

I'm limiting this to MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. No WNBA or MLS this time. Each team is included with the year it started play.

14. MLB, Washington Nationals: 2005. Counting their time as the Montreal Expos, 1969.
13. NBA, New Orleans Pelicans: 2002. Technically, these are the original Charlotte Hornets, so I could have listed them as 1988.
12. NFL, Houston Texans: 2002.
11. NBA, Memphis Grizzlies, 2001. Counting their time as the Vancouver Grizzlies, 1995.
10. NHL, Minnesota Wild, 2000. They have reached the Conference Finals, unlike...
9. NHL, Columbus Blue Jackets, 2000.
8. NHL, Arizona Coyotes, 1997. See Winnipeg Jets, below.
7. NFL, Jacksonville Jaguars, 1995. They've reached 3 AFC Championship Games.
6. NBA, Minnesota Timberwolves, 1989. They reached the Western Conference Finals in 2004.
5. NBA, Charlotte Hornets, 1988. This franchise began as the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004, but have taken on the name of the 1988-2002 team since 2014.
4. NBA, Los Angeles Clippers: 1984. Counting all of their previous incarnations, going back to the Buffalo Braves, 1970.
3. NHL, Winnipeg Jets: 1979. Neither the current Jets, known as the Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2011, nor the original Jets, known as the Phoenix or Arizona Coyotes since 1997, have reached the Finals. But the original Jets won the WHA Championship in 1976, 1977 and 1979.
2. MLB, Seattle Mariners: 1977.
1. NBA, Denver Nuggets: 1976. In the ABA, they reached the 1976 Finals.

The Cleveland Browns have never appeared in the Super Bowl, but they have won 4 NFL Championships, most recently in 1964.

The Detroit Lions have never appeared in the Super Bowl, but they have won 4 NFL Championships, most recently in 1957.

So: MLB, 28 of 30 teams have made it; NFL, 30 of 32; NBA, 24 of 30; NHL, 27 of 31.

UPDATE: The Washington Nationals won the 2019 World Series. And the Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Championships.

So the only MLB team that hasn't made it is the Seattle Mariners; the only NFL teams, the Houston Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars; the only NBA teams, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Charlotte Hornets and the Los Angeles Clippers; and the only NHL teams, the Minnesota Wild, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Arizona Coyotes and the Winnipeg Jets.