Are Lakers the winningest franchise in basketball history even though the Celtics have more titles?

I am confused. I thought the franchise who has the most championships is the winningest team in history. I know the Lakers have been to the championship more times than the Celtics but isn't that like saying the Patriots were the winningest team last year.

Are Lakers the winningest franchise in basketball history even though the Celtics have more titles?nba 2k

Lakers are a better franchise by far

Lakers won more titles in the modern era than the Celtics

we didnt have to take Bill Russell and let him annhilate 5 white guys to win championships

we won them against strong men....who were matched in height and athletic ability

Are Lakers the winningest franchise in basketball history even though the Celtics have more titles?nba updates ,nba teams

Depends what you mean by winningest but it's one of the two. Celtics have won 16 titles from 19 prior finals appearances. Lakers have won 14 titles from 28 prior finals appearances. The next closest team in terms of finals appearances is the '76ers with 9 finals appearances. In their NBA regular season histories the Lakers are 2861-1808 (61.2%) and the Celtics are 2795-1878 (59.8%). The Patriots were the winningest team last year (in terms of record) just not the champions. Lakers may be the winningest franchise but Boston wins more when it matters most, the clutchiest franchise?
Lakers have won 45 more games, EXCLUDING the playoffs. Playoff victories don't matter, right? Why would anyone want to count them?\

"we didnt have to take Bill Russell and let him annhilate 5 white guys to win championships"

Wilt Chamberlain was a "white guy"?
I saw that question.

Ok, Boston is 16-3 in the finals. Lakers are 14-14. So Boston has more wins and a much better percentage. They are the "winningest" (what a silly word) franchise.

On the other hand, the Lakers have been contenders almost consistently (Magic Johnson and Del Harris Coached teams withstanding.) They are the more storied franchised. You could, theoretically, make a list of the greatest Lakers of all time and put them up against the best 5 players from the rest of the NBA and the top 5 Lakers would win. The fact that players like Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Gren do not have their numbers retired when they would have been retired with almost any other team is very telling.