I don't get the no respect for him having a ring thing at all. The reason why these backups got rings is because of the experience they brought to squads and what they had to offer in all the time they spent NOT winning rings elsewhere. The body of work for a career is why these guys are taken onto teams on the cusp of a championship and more often than not these guys are the difference between a team that almost wins it all and a team that actually does.
Zo, GP, Mitch Richmond, Glen Rice, etc., are all guys that earn a championship. Saying any of these guys don't bring enough to a team to get them over the hump makes no sense to me, or that their career is any different. Ask coaches around the league if those players earn those rings, fans are the only ones who would say the contrary. Grant Hill probably won't earn one because as far as I can tell he doesn't have the playoff experience or knowledge of what it takes to win. He hasn't done it enough. I'd rather have Michael Finley personally. Their careers are different because they've been rewarded for what they worked for all those years and they were smart enough to surround themselves with what they needed to make it happen. That's the ultimate career goal, if you achieve that goal you're looked at differently, it's not a sympathy ring, it's capitalizing and should be commended. That's what THEY care about. Does Grant Hill? I don't care, but it doesn't look to be so.
I don't know if this is directed directly towards my comment earlier, or is more of a reply to multiple people. If it is directed towards me, I definitely never said I did or didn't respect him. What I did say was that winning a ring next year with Boston wouldn't change my opinion of him at all.
He can go down like Zo or he can go down like regular has-beens
Did Zo go down different than Karl Malone? If Karl Malone won a ring with LA in '04 would it make you respect him more or less? If Karl Malone did get that ring with LA, I would still think of him the same way I do of him as I think of the ringless Karl Malone now.
If Dallas beat Miami in '06 (or if the refs didn't call everything Wade's way), would that change your opinion of Zo now?
What I'm saying is, save for some crazy accusation/crime (steriods, rape, child molestation, murder, point shaving, etc.), Grant Hill's legacy is pretty much already set. What he does now isn't going to change it, it will be just a drop in the ocean. The less you contribute to a championship team, the less it affects your legacy.