Championship or Hall of Fame? Basketball Perspective

[SidDaKid]

As a player, would you rather be in the hall of fame or get a championship ring? This is based on the comment LaDainian Tomlinson made.

Journalist- "Would you rather be a Hall of Fame player without a ring or a guy that won a ring, but wasn't good enough to get in the Hall of Fame?"

LT- "A Hall of Fame player without a ring. Just because I feel like you've got to sacrifice so much individually, just to be good. Now, they draft you -- individually, they draft you. So you gotta back them up and make them right. So I think at the end of the day, even though I didn't win a Super Bowl ring, I felt like I backed them up for drafting me."

[Pete the Cheat]

Karl, John...what are your thoughts?

http://thesportsbeagle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/malone_stockton.jpg

whats up baby...
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[kevC]

How drastic are we going here? Mengke Bateer vs. Charles Barkley? Or like Robert Horry vs. Calvin Murphy?

[SidDaKid]

I think it really depends on the player. Someone like LeBron whole legacy depends on if he gets a ring or not, which of course he did. If he got into the HOF without a ring, to the public that would mean absolutely nothing because he did not get a ring. LeBron IMO would rather have a ring then get into the HOF if he had a choice.

[jank1434]

I'd probably rather be a solid player on a championship team (like a James Harden if OKC would've won) than a hall of famer without a ring. However, I'd rather be a HOF'er than Adam Morrison.

[Mr. Space City]

football is different than basketball.

as a football player you can't contribute to your overall teams success as much as an nba player.

with that being said i'd rather be known as one of the best players ever at my position and be a first ballot HOF than a role player for a championship team.

steve nash career >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> jason terry

[Yung-T]

HOFers are remembered forever and it shows you are one of the best. Every player can get a ring if he's on the right team.

[KingLeoric]

Championship rings, MVPs awards, Scoring Champion awards, Allstar appearances, individual stats...These "sub" achievements all contribute to a player's career towards the ultimate achievement, Hall of Fame.

You can get to Hall of Fame without a ring if you have enough of other "sub" achievements, and you can get to Hall of Fame with a ring as one of your "sub" achievements.

I don't see how a ring can have negative effect for a player to get into HoF.

[SacTown]

Lots of great great players don't have rings. And lots of great players like Gary Payton got rings late in their career where they didn't contribute much. It really means very little me. I think people make too big of a deal of whether you have a ring or not. It takes a great team, great role players, great coach and a little bit of luck along the way to actually win a ring. It doesn't define a player.

[superfob]

I was curious about the role player on championship team vs obvious NBA greats who will make the hall of fame.

List of Finals MVP not in hall of fame:

JoJo White
Cedric Maxwell

Both on Boston teams. I will go ahead and guess that Chauncey Billups will be on this list as well. Maybe Tony Parker.

Rather be a Hall of Famer and made it to the finals (and at least performed well not choke) than be carried to a ring.