Your thoughts on ringchasing

[CelticConcourse]

I don't really like it. Who likes to see a player who's been on the same team for 20 years end up in Los Angeles or Miami. I want them to start in the same place and end in the same place, not leave because they wanted one more championship. 0 rings with 1 team is better than 1 ring with 12 teams.

What about you?

[RyNye]

I would say it is situational.

For example, KG leaving Minnesota. It was a poorly managed team that did not do its job to surround KG with a competent enough squad for him to win a ring. He deserved the chance to win somewhere else, and to be with an organization that has treated him well.

On the other hand, there are players like Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James, and others who forced their way into new situations.

I don't think you can make a blanket claim about ring-chasing in general (I mean, are you seriously offended by players like Rashard Lewis or Tracy McGrady, who were both very very good players in their primes, coming off the bench for championship caliber teams to get that ring for their legacy?), and I suspect that any given person's opinions on it have more to do with how much they like that individual player anyway.

[soap07]

Rings matter far more than staying on one team. Whenever LeBron gets compared to Jordan, rings get brought up first and foremost. When KG was in Minnesota, no one was lauding him for being loyal to Minny, they were criticizing his seeming inability to get out of the first round.

Winning matters more than anything.

[Celtics4ever]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.

I respect it more when people play an active part, like or not, Ray doesn't hit that jumper and Spurs win.

[soap07]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.

I respect it more when people play an active part, like or not, Ray doesn't hit that jumper and Spurs win.

We also have to define what ring chasing is, I suppose.

Sam Cassell, PJ Brown, Ray, Rashard Lewis, TMac - end of their career guys looking for an extra ring as a reserve.

Is KG only approving a trade to the C's if Ray goes there too ring chasing? And Melo leveraging a trade to the Knicks to team up with Amar'e, ring chasing?

[sahara]

Just part of the business in pro-sports. It´s about the legacy you leave behind, the way you win championships will mostly fade out, but the championships won´t.

[TitleMaster]

Nope, it's important to win rings. Right, Pete Maravich is remembered as an NCAA phenomenon who's only recalled as an NBA volume scorer. Had he stuck around with the Celtics, for one more year, replacing Chris Ford as backup guard, he'd be an NBA champion and for the history books, that would matter. The same went for Bob MacAdoo, where he ended his career on the Laker's bench, earning him a title as well. All and all, it's better to win titles, ask Charles Barkley or Karl Malone how they feel today, without a ring on their mantle.

[D.o.s.]

To me, people's dislike of ring chasing depends on the caliber of the player compared to their prime. I don't see a lot of people who have a problem with Steve Kerr's ring with the Spurs, for example, because he was a consistent presence on the court--you could say the same for Robert Horry.

Compare that to someone like Gary Payton, who won a ring ten years after his prime with the Heat while playing in a seriously diminished capacity. I think that, to most people, comes across as more ring chasing-y than Kerr, even though you would assume that most basketball players keep playing in order to win a title.

[saltlover]

I have two thoughts on this:

1) it's no fun to lose.  I can't fault anyone for wanting to win, and realizing their present situation is a winning one.
2) if you go to the defending champion, and they won without you, it counts less.  They didn't need you to win last year.  What makes you think you helped them win this year.  Even if you're regularly on the court, you're just taking the role of someone else who was good enough for them to win.  If you go to a team that came close, and then they win, you actually mattered.

[SparzWizard]

Championship matters.

So yes, ringchasing is important for people who loves to win championships. But it really depends on who, when, and how they do it.

If I get tired of losing with the same team over and over and over, I'd take my talents elsewhere. Stacking with superstars? Maybe, but that doesn't really look cool in your image. Of course, I'll get the hate from my old team and city for defecting them which is expected when one dumps their team and moves on to another.

But overall, always about winning championships. At least imo.

[moylana25]

In the end, isn't it all about winning a ring? Despite what we see on a season to season basis, owners don't pay players just to play. They pay players to win. It's all a business after all and a ring looks great to a player but a championship team looks wonderful to an owner, at least I would imagine.

So no, I don't have a problem ring chasing with talented players. It's players like Rashard Lewis, James Jones, and the other Heat clutter that annoy me. At least Ray was a pivotal player in the team's success.

[Redz]

In the end, if the Heat don't have Ray they more than likely lose in 6.  So,it wasn't like Ray was window dressing.  They needed him and he filled a role. 

[PhoSita]

I think when a player has been in the league a while and has earned enough money that the value of their contract isn't super important to them, they've more than earned the right to choose to play on a team they believe will give them the best chance to win while actually getting to play a role.

[saltlover]

In the end, isn't it all about winning a ring? Despite what we see on a season to season basis, owners don't pay players just to play. They pay players to win. It's all a business after all and a ring looks great to a player but a championship team looks wonderful to an owner, at least I would imagine.

So no, I don't have a problem ring chasing with talented players. It's players like Rashard Lewis, James Jones, and the other Heat clutter that annoy me. At least Ray was a pivotal player in the team's success.

Nonsense.  James Jones was already there last year when the Heat won a ring, and Ray Allen took his minutes.  Heck, he's been on the Heat since before LeBron.  Rashard Lewis and Juwan Howard, whatever, but James Jones wasn't ringchasing.  The rings came to him.

[wdleehi]

As soon as fans and the media started measuring the value of players so heavily based on rings, I have less issues with it.