We’re at the point of the NBA offseason where the discourse has turned to ring chasing.
Now that LeBron James, set to enter his record 24th NBA season, has joined Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers, a segment of fans have derided James for chasing another title.
One of the game’s all-time greats, Shaquille O’Neal, pushed back on that.
“The man is not chasing a ring; he has already gotten rings the right way,” O’Neal told For the Win’s Prince Grimes in an interview. “Towards the end of your career, if you can join up and help somebody else get a ring and continue to get rings – I call it ring continuancy, not ring chasing.”
Although James averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game last season with
the Los Angeles Lakers, he’s no longer the dominant force that he was earlier in his career. James will turn 42 in late December, but, despite that, he continues to be a valuable complementary player, and one who gives the 76ers another play-making creator.
“Ring chasing would be ‘I don’t have a ring, I’ve been doing it my whole (career), now I’m going to get on a superteam to win a ring,’ ” O’Neal continued.
“Nah, somebody did ring chasing during the middle of their career, I’m not going to say no names, and it got them a couple of rings. Hey, LeBron played the right way. He put the team together in Miami. A lot of people don’t like that, but it worked. Went back to Cleveland and got one. Got one in L.A.”
Despite the contempt associated with the ring chasing term, the reality is that every single NBA player wants to win a championship. These are hyper-competitive athletes and winning a title is the culmination of their physical, mental and emotional investments.
Every player, by definition, is chasing championships.
O’Neal played 19 seasons and won four NBA titles, winning three NBA Finals Most Valuable Player awards. Despite that previous success, O’Neal signed with the Celtics ahead of the 2010-11 season, joining a team that already featured Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen.
“I actually did it,” O’Neal admitted. “When I went to play at Boston, I was like, ‘Hey, Kobe (Bryant) got five (championships), let me try to get five.’ I wasn’t going out there to be the man, I was just going to do my part to help them get a ring and get me number five, because when it was over, I would’ve loved to say I have five instead of four.”
Yet, with his stature in the league, most everything James does gets dissected. This decision to sign with the Sixers is no different.
Philadelphia was unceremoniously swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the eventual-champion New York Knicks, who snapped a 53-year title drought. NBA championships are hard to come by. And just because James joined a stacked team doesn’t guarantee anything.
“People don’t understand: when this thing is over for him, it’s going to be over,” O’Neal said. “There will never be another LeBron again.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is LeBron James chasing a ring? An all-time NBA great pushes back
