How important is winning? Do rings really mean that much? It’s a never-ending argument. The fact is, this is why we have the NBA, this is what it’s all about. The NBA Finals. The chance for someone to make history.
Two players so different, yet so much about them is the same. Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James. Two of the game’s greatest players still have so much to gain, and yet so much to lose. Legacies are on the line. Both are fighting to avoid the same basketball purgatory. Starting tonight at 9, it all begins, the fight for the mountaintop and the battle for career-changing rings.
But which player needs a ring more? LeBron or Dirk? We argue. You decide.
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LeBron James
Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith had this same debate on 1st and 10 last week. Believe it or not, as inconceivable as this may sound, I disagreed with Skip, who later in the show went on to say, “Scottie Pippen is not one of the 50 greatest players of all-time.” (One of my buddies is a religious Skip hater. His favorite Skip faux pas: “Tim Brown will never be in the football Hall of Fame.”) Anyway, Skip sided with Dirk in the debate. He argued that Dirk may never get this far again, that Dirk was playing with an old team and that this was his last shot at winning a championship.
That’s fair. Dirk is 32 and his team is old. But his “legacy ceiling” (the amount of hypothetical space left for your legacy to grow) isn’t nearly as large as LeBron’s. Say Dallas gets swept by Miami and Dirk averages a mere 15 and seven. Does our overall opinion on Dirk change? Does this series devastate his place in history as one of the greats? The answer is no. Now say Dallas beats Miami and Dirks finally gets a ring. Potentially, he moves ahead of Barkley, Ewing and Malone but he’s still not a top 10 player. As horribly wrong as this may sound, the ring does not elevate his 13-year career exponentially higher than his career without one.
Think of the ring as “NOS” in one of those Fast and the Furious movies and LeBron and Dirk’s careers as the racetrack. Dirk’s going 110 mph and is almost at the finish line. If he hits the NOS, he may reach 120 or 130 mph, but he doesn’t have enough track to go any faster. LeBron’s going that same 110 mph, but if he clicks in the NOS, he’s hitting 150 mph or 160 mph. And at age 26, he’s got a lot more track left to hit those high speeds and reach his legacy ceiling.
The King needs a ring and there are three reasons why:
Reason One: Proof. All the greats have won championships. You know the saying, “to be the best, you have to beat the best.” If LeBron is going to be the best, he needs to win a championship. We’ll let 2007 slide. He was only 23, his team wasn’t very good and the Spurs were just better. But this time there’s no excuse. LeBron needs to prove to the world that his ceiling isn’t too high, that our expectations weren’t excessive. He needs to prove to us that he’s a winner, that he can dominate on the biggest stage…that he has what it takes to be considered one of the greats.
Reason Two: Jewelry. Have you ever seen a King in a movie or television show that wasn’t wearing a ring? Kings wear rings. They wear as many as humanly possible. It’s in their contracts. Just ask King Tut, one of the King Georges or that guy in the Burger King costume.
Reason Three: What’s at stake. LeBron is all in. Whether he chose to or not, he’s all in. Maybe he pushed his chips in, maybe America pushed them in. Regardless, he’s all in and the chips are his legacy. The cash prize is perpetual greatness and he’s only one hand away. LeBron is all in, and tonight, we get a peak at what he’s holding.
-SCOTT HORLBECK
Dirk Nowitzki
After witnessing Scottie Pippen crown LeBron James the “greatest player to ever play the game,” it’s obvious that with or without a ring, James will remain a mainstay for years to come in the ongoing debate over the best player in NBA history. Dirk Nowitzki, however, needs to win a championship just to solidify his reputation as a top 30 all-time player.
Before Nowitzki’s recent string of 40-point games in the playoffs, most NBA fans casually overlooked his stellar season with the Mavericks, instead choosing to focus on younger, more exciting stars. Players like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose dominated headlines during the regular season while Nowitzki was quietly leading his team to the second seed in the Western Conference. As the 12-year veteran approaches what will likely be his last Finals appearance, he desperately needs a championship to cement his legacy as a true NBA superstar, and to avoid being remembered as just one of numerous talented players without a ring.
While James and his Heat teammates will likely remain perennial championship contenders for the next several years, Nowitzki and the aging Mavericks will face a difficult road loaded with young talent if they hope to return to the Finals. With the Thunder emerging as a powerhouse and the up-and-coming Grizzlies proving that they can compete with the class of the NBA, the Western Conference will stay chock full of youthful, capable teams for the next several seasons.
In addition, James is already the face of the NBA and will continue to rank among the league’s elite, regardless of whether or not he wins the title in 2011. Although the Heat superstar has been ridiculed for his inability to close out important games and is desperate to quiet his critics with a championship ring, he will nonetheless have numerous opportunities for future titles if he fails to win one this year. In contrast, Nowitzki is in danger of becoming a ring-less Hall of Famer if he comes up short in the 2011 Finals.
Unlike James, Nowitzki has lost some of his athleticism over the past few years and has relied mostly on his signature fade-away jumper and consistency at the free-throw line to carry the Mavericks to the Finals. During the regular season, Nowitzki recorded 10-year lows in points (23), rebounds (seven) and minutes (34.5) per game, hinting at his gradual transition from a do-it-all scorer to a veteran late-game finisher. Although he has not reached that point yet and is still more productive than many of the league’s aging stars, the 32-year-old Nowitzki cannot move quite as well on the court anymore and will likely see his numbers continue to decrease as the years take their toll on his body. While James seems to add a new element to his game every year and has transformed himself into an all-league defender and respectable jump shooter, Nowitzki has already eclipsed the prime of his career. There’s no reason to believe that James won’t continue to improve and reach the Finals again, while Nowitzki is likely facing his last opportunity to capture a ring.
Nowitzki will never be considered the best player of all time; he probably won’t even make most experts’ top 10 all-time list. However, if he wins the title in 2011, Nowitzki will bolster his reputation as a true closer and insert himself into the elite group of NBA stars who have led their team to the Promised Land.
-EITAN TYE
What do you think?
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