• Dwyane Wade has come to the defense of players who aren’t considered greats because of their ring count
• He mentioned Michael Jordan ruining the timing of winning for many players he considers greater than him
• Wade also mentioned how LeBron James has stopped people from making the Finals with 10 appearances in 12 seasons
The number of championships a player wins is extremely crucial to how he is regarded after his career is over. Unfortunately, there are many all-time greats that couldn’t taste victory in the NBA.
Dwyane Wade isn’t one of them, winning three titles over his career. But he did sympathize with the ones who didn’t win titles because of poor timing and the existence of Michael Jordan.
“There are players way greater than me and they won’t walk away with three rings. That doesn’t mean I’m better than them cause I have three rings or because another player has one or two… You don’t bring championships off one person, cause it’s not golf, it’s not tennis, or so forth… It’s timing. Michael Jordan came in and messed everybody’s timing up. LeBron James’ been in the Finals 10 to 12 years!”
Basketball is a team sport and all accomplishments are achieved by a team. But the fact that Jordan has six titles and six Finals MVPs or that LeBron made 10 Finals and won four rings shows that certain players are common denominators in success.
LeBron didn’t stop people from winning like Jordan did, as MJ retired 6-0 in the Finals, the ultimate flex that’ll keep him as the GOAT in many people’s eyes.
Michael Jordan Stopped Many Legends From Becoming Champions
Michael Jordan saw a lot of playoff losses at the start of his career at the hands of championship-level teams that wanted to ensure he never won, like the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics. But after Jordan got over the hump in 1991, there was no stopping him.
NBA legends such as Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, and many more never got to enjoy championship success because of losses to Jordan. Even in the two years that Jordan wasn’t there, these players were terrorized by Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets, meaning they had to retire without getting a ring on their finger.
Jordan is 12-4 against Barkley in playoff games and 3-0 in overall series matchups. He is 8-4 against Stockton and Malone, winning both Finals series they matched up in. Patrick Ewing faced off against Jordan in five playoff series, losing all of them and finishing with an overall record of 19-8 in Jordan’s favor.
Michael Jordan Took Pride In Making Sure These Players Didn’t Win A Title
The ultra-competitive Michael Jordan knows very well that many of his contemporaries are all-time NBA legends whose status cannot be disputed because they were sensational on the court. But he also knows very well that he ensured they wouldn’t become champions by beating them in the playoffs, taking great pride in the same.
“You know, you can talk about it, I joke around with my friends about it, Charles and Patrick and all these guys. I take great pride in making sure that they don’t win. I want them to win, but I just don’t want them to win when I’m still playing. I want them to feel like if they won a championship, it doesn’t feel quite the same because they didn’t face Michael Jordan.”
Jordan was untouchable in the playoffs in the 1990s, and he knew it. Between 1991 and 1998, Jordan only lost one playoff series matchup. That solitary loss came in 1995 as he returned from baseball to the NBA midseason and lost to the Shaquille O’Neal-led Orlando Magic, a team he would sweep the very next season.
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