LeBron James recently came under media scrutiny for claiming that the ring culture in the NBA is harmful for the sport in the long run. In an attempt to discount the number of championships a player has won as the sole metric to determine the greatest player of all time, James went on his ‘Mind the Game’ podcast to express his views.
“I do not know the answer,” said James when he was asked about the origin of the ring culture presently in the NBA. “I wish I had the answer to this, but I’m not sure. Man, it’s funny. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know why it’s discussed so much in our sport, and why it’s the end-all, be-all of everything.”
“It’s like saying Peyton Manning can’t be in the same room with [Tom] Brady or [Patrick] Mahomes because he only has [two rings],” James said. “Or telling me that Dan Marino is not the greatest slinger of all time, but he can’t be in the room with those guys because he didn’t win a championship. They don’t discuss those things. … Did Barry Bonds win a World Series? I don’t think so….. You can’t sit here and tell me that he’s not the greatest baseball player to ever touch a bat. I just, I don’t understand where it came from. I don’t know where it started. I just hope that we just appreciate more what guys have been able to accomplish.”
“You automatically dismiss people and their careers when you say, ‘Hey, he didn’t win a ring.’ It’s like, have you actually sat down and looked at this guy’s career and see what he accomplished? Jerry West went to like nine straight NBA Finals and was only able to win one, and he’s the logo of our league. You can’t sit here and tell me that, ‘OK, because he only won one, he can’t be in the same room with people who won two or three or four.'”
This seems to be in concurrence with what Michael Jordan said about rings when he was asked about it in an interview with Cigar Aficionado.
“I won 6 championships. Bill Russell won 11. Does that make Bill Russell better than me? Or make me better than him? No. Because we played at different eras. “
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Why The NBA Media Backfired On LeBron James For His Opinion
Stephen A. Smith and some other key media figures criticized James over his comments on the NBA’s current culture around rings. They believed that James himself was being hypocritical as he moved teams solely to win a championship on multiple occasions in his career. Be it the move from the Cavaliers to the Heat or the Cavaliers to the Lakers, all his moves have been intended to bag another ring in the GOAT debate.
In my opinion, while the lack of a championship does not discredit your career, winning one certainly adds an elite status mark to your career. That being said, even role players on teams get rings. Robert Horry, for example, has seven of them, and Steve Kerr technically has nine. Does that make them better players than LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Absolutely not.
When you talk about the greatest of all time in any sport, one of the primary categories that contributes to the answer to that debate is winning. Winning can be on a personal level, like individual achievements (MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, etc.), but in most cases, the team’s success supersedes personal glory in the debate to decide the greatest player of all time.
