Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post erroneously stated only 9 teams have won the title since 1984, omitting the accomplishments of the 2006 Dallas Mavericks and the Heatles. We would like to personally apologize to Dirk Nowitzki, J.J. Barea, Rick Carlisle, Tyson Chandler and Udonis Haslem. And the refs who gave the Heat the 2006 title. Thanks to loyal Mid Ranger Hurst Renner for calling this statistic into question. The Mid Range is taking fact checker applications at themidrangeteam@gmail.com.
J.D. Crabtree: Hey there Carter.
It’s early September. We have descended into a strange time for basketball.
Football has started and has re-taken the focus for most of America. Russell Westbrook trades are over. Our FIBA team has generated zero national interest. People are taking a lot of end of summer pictures and gearing up for fall social media strategies. So let’s remind people why basketball is more important than everything.
This topic could be controversial. There are going to be players you thought highly of in their primes that now might rub you the wrong way upon full understanding these “business decisions”. It’s less about the love of the game and more about eternal fame. We are going to break down Ringchasers.
Cooks, Ringchasers are exactly how they sound, they chase NBA title rings. For those unfamiliar with the NBA this almost always calls for a veteran player jumping to an upcoming title contender in exchange for low salaries and coming off the bench. The qualifications I’m making up on the fly are simple:
– You must be off your rookie contract
– You must have at least spent four years with a prior team, thus trying to make it work with them- You do not have a ring
– And I’ll let you decide if we want to put an age minimum on a Ringchaser
So this is all about who did it right, who did it wrong, and who should have put their pride aside and done it. And the player I’m going to start with will fit any criteria we could come up with:
Gary Payton.
Understanding The Glove’s path will hopefully set the tone for this exercise. He gave his entire prime (13 years) to the Seattle SuperSonics, never won a title, and had a horrible break-up with the franchise. So the guy probably wanted to win something in his second life.
After a necessary stint with the Bucks via trade, he made the ultimate Ringchaser move and signed with the Lakers for 03-04. Gary Payton, someone known as the ultimate competitor, jumped on the Los Angeles title train hoping to scorch the league one more time. However it was a little too late. They lost that year. Things got weird. He was traded away to the Celtics. Then the Celtics traded him away. But then he was waived and rejoined them a week later. The Celtics did not win anything either with an aging Antoine Walker and Gary Payton.
The Glove finally found his fit with a Miami Heat championship in the 06-07 season. He’s old now – the guy used to guard Maurice Cheeks.
Let’s look at his best year on the Sonics and his best year on the Heat:
Sonics = 24.2 PPG, 8.9 APG, 6.5 RPG, 1.9 SPG
Heat = 7.7 PPG, 3.2 APG, 2.9 RPG, 0.9 SPG
I’m torn on the amount of #respect he deserves when people reference his ring. That was Dwayne Wade and Shaq’s title, everyone else was plug and play. But technically, because he was on the team, he scored points and made assists for a championship team. So it counts. He was incredibly durable (only missing 25 games in his career), he wasn’t trying to be the Larry Bird of the 1992 Dream Team. But it became so apparent in his final years that he would be willing to extend his career unto his 50s if he had to. I could see him being a lovely addition to those runner-up Cavs teams.
Did GP handle the back half of his career the right way? Were the 1-2 year title-hoping hops a weird way to close out an all-time great? Does anyone even care about his Heat title and will he always be Shaun Kemp’s running mate in our minds? Or was earning a lone title a way to solidify his all-time status?
And give the readers what they want: another Ringchaser
Carter Pearson: John – great topic.
I have to add some further qualifications to the Ringchaser model:
– You must be at least 30 years old
– You cannot be the best player on your new team
– You have to take less money to join the team, thereby chasing #rangzzz instead of just choosing based on salary
I have two targets with these rules: Kevin Durant and LeBron James. When you are one of the best players in the league, you are not a Ringchaser. Ringchasers are the grizzled old men at the bar of the NBA, listening to Bruce Springsteen and making the young bucks fetch them Dunkin’ Donuts.
Onto your questions. Not to sound like an “everyone-gets-a-trophy-millennial”, but overall I place no weight on titles where you weren’t one of the best 4 players on the team. I think people should do what makes them happy. If that means leaving a place where you were once the man to go ride Shaq to a title, that’s cool with me. But, it doesn’t affect how I see you in league history.
I’m more into loyalty and building a deep connection with a place than jumping around all the time. But, I see why players do it. First, winning a championship is probably really fun. Second, I’m sure Charles Barkley gets really annoyed with people who ask him about titles. For me, even if he won a title as a member of the 1999 Lakers, I wouldn’t think any differently about his career.
That said: GP did not end his career how I would have. I would have been much more impressed with him if he ended his career with the Sonics, retired, and had them build a statue outside of the building of him throwing an underhand alley-oop to Shawn Kemp while Kemp looked at a girl in the 3rd row of the crowd. The building no longer hosts men’s professional basketball games, but that is beside the point.
Contrast him with Reggie Miller. Reginald played all 18 (!) seasons with the Pacers, making the playoffs and contributing in his age-38 and age-39 seasons. I’d bet those last two seasons, in a place you’ve been for almost 20 years, where you’ve earned universal respect and acclaim, were a lot more rewarding for Reggie than coming off the bench behind White Chocolate was for GP. But, that’s a value judgement that I cannot back up at all.
For my Ringchaser – I’m going with David West. He is the quintessential modern Ringchaser. He joined the Golden State Warriors the same year as KD. He is also a habitual Ringchaser, as he migrated west after a one-year, unsuccessful chase with the previous NBA dynasty, the San Antonio Spurs.
D-West embodied the ringchaser tradition started by Robert Horry. Stretch 4, former good, not great player, stout defender, willing to play a bit dirty to win, respected locker room guy, always in the right spots – insert any cliché you want here about veteran presence and he nails it. He was crucial to the team’s success, but they probably still win the title if you give all his minutes to Maareese Speights.
But – like Horry, D-West had the crucial factor that made his ring chasing successful: people were happy for him when he won. Unlike Karl Malone, Payton, or later Steve Nash and Dwight on the Lakers, no one shit on him for ring chasing. They just kind of acknowledged it and went along on their merry way.
I think this is another key ingredient to successfully ring chasing: you cannot have been too good in the first place. If you are too good, people will make fun of you for not being able to win on your own, and then give you no credit for the actual title.
Unless you were a star or a role player drafted by one of those teams, at some point you had to either chase a ring or realize you were going to end ringless and therefore unfulfilled in the eyes of Rangzzz culture disciples. That’s dumb.
J.D. – what do you think of Rangzzz culture? Can I get you Goldilocks take on the emphasis we place on titles (too much, not enough, just right)?
JD: Ok, for the subscribers at home these are the current qualifications for being/becoming a Ringchaser:
– You must be off your rookie contract
– You must have at least spent four years with a prior team, thus trying to make it work with them
– You do not have a ring
– You must be at least 30 years old
– You cannot be the best player on your new team
– You have to take less money to join the team, thereby chasing #rangzzz instead of just choosing based on salary
We are the keepers of Ringchasing. One doesn’t simply Ringchase, they must pass a series of tests and fallbacks in their career to approach the throne.
That was a sad qualifications list to organize, immediately began thinking of people fading out of the limelight. I saw Weezer for my second time this year last week, and unfortunately that is them. And I become sad to realize they will never top Undone – The Sweater Song. That is why they cover Africa now. Then I watched your Springsteen video, and become more sad. Ringchasing is sometimes sad Carter.
Moving on.
Also for the subscribers at home this is the second edition in a row we have mentioned David West. So he probably holds a tie with Pascal Siakam for The Mid Range mention record, we will think of an appropriate way to reward David.
A lot to break down in your response. I’m glad you see the irony in Payton’s chasing. I’m ecstatic that you brought up Reginald Miler. By the way I couldn’t help but imagine that GP+Kemp statue you mentioned having a Chernobyl effect if it was constructed and lasted till today: Lots of youths asking their parents what happened to the franchise. Then referencing something is “jelly” and completely ruining the history lesson.
I’m going to speak for the universe here if that’s ok with the universe. People, newborn infants all the way to Zach Lowe, reminisce upon Reggie’s efforts with the Pacers more than Gary’s efforts with all his teams combined. And I say that because Gary diversified his legacy and made it confusing for new waves of fans to understand his total body of work. We all mentally quit once he left the Sonics. What is interesting with this take is that it is the take of an outsider, and Gary is the one sitting in some three-story mansion wearing a championship ring. For all I know he fulfilled his life quest and is happy, which you acknowledged is perfectly fine. But if he cares even a sliver about his legacy, its fair for the greater universe to critique his legacy since we define it.
I think what we are running into is a stubbornness issue. When do you give up with your team Carter? Maybe they are tanking. Maybe they are the Minnesota Timberwolves and you are Kevin Garnett and you are like my lord you all can’t figure anything out since drafting me. Maybe they are too humble or frugal. I think its clear modern players are shifting away from extreme loyalty to the random metropolises that draft them. Across all industries people are job-hopping like never before – to be continued if this era fulfills lives. Wait, are we the Lost Generation?
Alright, my Goldilocks take on Rangzzz culture. Before I do that can we call the ultimate chasers ‘Goldirings’? Thanks, means a lot.
I think society puts a humorous amount of emphasis on rings, because now everyone can thrust their opinion into the semi-limelight with social media. Basically there are a lot of hot takes around oversimplified statistics. Example: dErek FiSher HaS mOre RiNgs ThAn StEvE nash, sO BetTer. It’s strange man, I’ve seen that exact take on the internet and I get confused and sad, but a different sad from the Springsteen sad just to be clear.
This is perhaps a shallowness issue. Stockton and Malone should never be ridiculed for their lifelong mission of bringing a championship to the Mormon lands. And people shouldn’t frown upon Mike Conley’s career because he tried to make it work in Memphis for 12 years. We need a symbiotic relationship with legacies, otherwise it turns into Fortnite or Call of Duty where players keep ‘respawning’ every year or so in an attempt to get a title.
So that side of things I am leaning too much emphasis. BUT I do think there is a proper amount of attention and praise given to the ones that earn it the old-fashioned way a.k.a. making it happen with the team that drafted them: Kyle Lowry, Steph, Dirk, Tayshaun Prince.
What say you Cooks? Do you think society is causing more ringchasing than ever?
Also please give me your the worst Ringchaser OAT.
CP: Lots of excellent points there, Crabs. Also, I would like to apologize for the amount of sadness that my response caused you.
“Shallow” is the exact right word to define this debate. It’s a shallow, cheap argument to default to rings. And I think when people do it, it is bad. Society is causing more team-hopping than ever, but not necessarily more ring-chasing.
Players who stick it out with one team and then win should be rewarded more heartily than those who change teams, even if they aren’t technically ring-chasing. For example – Dirk’s title in Dallas is “worth more” to his career resumé than Durant’s in Oakland.
Have you been following the affirmative action debate related to Harvard at all? Stick with me; this will return to sports.
The tl;dr version: a group of Asian-American parents, backed by a really conservative group called the Students for Fair Admissions (who I think are bad), are suing Harvard because they say their admissions discriminate against Asians. It is way too complicated to adjudicate here. I’ll say that both sides make good points but I think Harvard has the right to introduce squishy factors like personality into their admissions process, but they could do a more equitable job than they having of scoring those factors.
I’ll pull from a really well written and reported article by former Grantlander Jay Caspian Kang, where he outlines the current precedent on affirmative action in higher education: “race is only supposed to be a “plus” that is considered when two applicants are otherwise indistinguishable. In those instances, race can be a “tip” that allows a university to seek the diversity it desires.”
In terms of legacy, titles should be used as a “tip” that allows the arguing party to say one player is better than the other only when the two are equal. For example, if you are arguing KG vs. Charles Barkley for the 7th best PF ever, you could cite Garnett’s title and “anything is possible” to tip the scales in your direction. Told you I could bring it back. We don’t #sticktosports here at the Mid Range.
My worst Ringchasers ever are a group. Every single old player who joined the LeBron Cavs from 2014-2018. I’m looking at you Sean Marion, James Jones, Mike Miller, Kendrick Perkins (twice), Brendan Haywood, Channing Frye, Dahntay Jones, Richard Jefferson, Mo Williams, Deron Williams, Kyle Korver, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. (!), Birdman, Dwyane Wade (whoops), José Calderon, George Hill and Jeff Green.
I blame LeBron for this, but you are all part of the reason the Cavs are now aiming to be (at best) a homeless man’s Dame/CJ Trailblazers in 4 years. That doesn’t even include J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson or Derrick Rose because they were already with the team or too young.
I’ll need your worst Ringchaser as well Any final thoughts to close out #10 of the Mid Range? Here’s to 100s more. This has been really fun so far. We hope the readers out there are enjoying this as much as we are.
JD: Carter, I made something for you:
That’s LeBron trying to cross the River of Styx. And look at all those thirsty players trying to hop on board.
The worst Ringchaser OAT in my eyes = Antonio “roll the” McDyess
How do you play for the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs from 2004-2011 to finish out your career and not own a championship ring? Right teams, wrong times I guess.
This was a second overall pick in ’95 situation too. This was the guy drafted in front of fellow ringbearing forwards, Rasheed Wallace and Kevin Garnett. That resume calls for your to do something special, have a Hall of Fame career or something. But he started chasing as soon as he hit 30 and kept losing at the river while holding pocket rockets each season.
If you are going to chase you must catch the golden snitch. Otherwise you jump into the aforementioned sea of Cavaliers and you can’t shake that stench.
I’m not going to roast him too hard because I’m sure he’s too aware of these facts and reads our publication, so that’ll be all for now. Hopefully he has a wedding ring, or a ring of fire, or loves Lord of The Rings to fill this void. The 1995 draft reunion parties probably aren’t that fun when Kevin and Sheed start flashing their hands, and those two probably don’t make it that fun for several other reasons.
In conclusion, #gettingyours is a tough professional path. There is no template for those looking to add the ultimate bling to their war chest. You pray that you are jumping on the right contender’s bandwagon, because often you are the first to go if things get awkward on the win percentage front. There is a rabbit hole of writing Carter and I could do on players falling into their twilight years, slowly seeing their lifelong identity slip out of grasp. Maybe a ring helps these athletes fight off the irrelevancy demons. If so, maybe all this is just fine.
But seriously imagine Greg Ostertag at parties. Adios everyone!
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