We as sports fans love to argue about who is better than who and when the argument gets really intense, we turn to arguing well such and such has a championship ring, and such and such doesn’t.
It’s an age-old adage, and if we validated every players NBA greatness based off rings, no player in the Jordan era would be considered great.
We all know that it takes luck, a good surrounding cast and several other factors to win a championship. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was on Reddit the other day, and answered a question in regards to why a basketball player only receives the ultimate recognition after winning a championship.
Reddit: Why do basketball players only get recognition after they’ve been a part of a championship team? For instance, Dirk has been an amazing player for 10 years now, but only got the respect he truly deserved from fans after having a championship caliber supporting cast (Including coaches) around him. If it’s a team game, why do players only get appreciated after they accomplish something that’s mostly out of their control (Since, most of the time, they don’t decide who they get to play with)?
Cuban: Thats the stupid , macho element of all professional sports. Its a lot easier to just pin a lable on someone than to actually do the work to determine the impact of a player. ITs the same reason everyone over values scoring in the NBA. Scoring is usually the easiest part of the game.