Yeah, and this mentality is also to blame for players not being as ‘loyal’ to their teams anymore, because they want to get rings as fast as possible.
Now, going back to the days of Russell vs Wilt we have always judged superstars on how many rings they won. But now due to rise of social media and all these armchair casual fans, they think everything that isn’t a championship is a fail. Part of this is also due to all the Bron haters out there who will turn Finals appearances into ‘failures’ as well. So if making the Finals is a failure, then virtually everything is a failure if it doesn’t result in a championship.
This is what led players like Giannis and Embiid to be frustrated asking fans did MJ fail 9 times then? He won 6, but played 15 seasons. Do 29 NBA teams fail every year? There’s no such thing as overachieving given that the Lakers literally went to the WCF after being giving a 0.3% chance to make the playoffs and 38 year old Bron still being called a failure after that. I think NBA fanbase is so toxic these days always comparing stuff like # of rings. There’s so much that goes into winning a ring. You gotta have the right coach, right team, right chemistry, no injuries, referees have to be in your favor and your opponent has to be a good matchup for you. If any of those go wrong, you could lose a game by 2 points (like the Lakers did in Game 4 vs Nuggets) and fans will blame you for everything when in reality, there was so many factors involved.
But because most of the NBA fanbase are casuals who don’t know about basketball and only look at rings without context, that’s why you have this ‘ring or bust’ mentality in the NBA now. Teams trading for superstars as soon as possible instead of taking time to develop them.
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