There are many ways to win an NBA championship if you’re a superstar, and the best players in history have often found a way to get it done. But it’s harder for some than it is for others, with things like the organization they are a part of and the teammates they have throughout their career playing a major part in how many rings they can have by the end of their careers.
The most respectable path to a championship is considered to be when a player sticks with the franchise that drafted them and leads them to glory as many times as they can. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Tim Duncan are some of the greatest examples of this. Kobe Bryant also, of course, falls into this category as someone who won 5 championships with the Lakers.
But other stars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant have taken another option, teaming up with other superstars after they couldn’t win with the teams that drafted them. The King’s decision to go to Miami and form the Heatles and KD’s move to the 73-win Warriors have both been widely criticized throughout their careers, with KD’s decision coming under scrutiny again following the Warriors’ win in the Finals.
And while most critics saying this can be ignored, even the great Kobe Bryant once spoke about how this wasn’t how he would have done it.
Never forget Kobe’s jab toward LeBron and Kevin Durant 😭 pic.twitter.com/MJ4m8DrAwk
— HOOPSMART (@hoopsmart) June 26, 2022
“As a leader, you’ve got to be able to take the good with the bad. You can’t just, because the ship is sinking, all of a sudden, ‘I’mma jump off and swim to another ship’. You don’t do that. You can win championships in front of everybody, then you could miss the playoffs in front of everybody. You gotta be able to take both sides of it.
“If you’re doing something that’s so easy, then you might want to reconsider what you’re doing… Durant’s been a friend of mine for a very very long time. He’s been a friend of mine for a long time, so is LeBron and all those guys. Would I make the same decision? No. But that’s their decision, that’s their choice.”
Bryant played against and alongside both Durant and James during his career, and this doesn’t imply that he didn’t have the greatest respect for them. But Kobe’s view is one that a lot of fans agree with and also something for the next generation of superstars to think about. After all, the ultimate championship is when a player overcomes all the hardships of their situation and manages to win it anyway.
