30 Dec 10 2010 NBA Playoffs: Winning An NBA Title Is The Only Thing That Matters

Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesContrary to popular opinion, the importance of capturing a NBA championship still far outweighs any regular season individual awards, even if the attitude of fans around the league has shifted towards placing a premium on success over 82 games.It perplexes me to ever Cleveland Browns jersey
hear a person make a statement that says championships are not really that important, and have no true bearing on the legacy of a great player.I struggle to see how we could have lost so much perspective, because the onlyreason the extremely long NBA regular season even exists is to establish seeding for the postseason.That's right, the first 82 games represent a month's long, glorified scrimmage that do little to determine who the league's best team is, because that is awarded under the pressure of the postseason.The media and soon-to-be fan biased MVP award has become a point of celebration among fans, and is falsely applied when discussing the level of a player's greatness, without the benefit of postseason success.I'm not suggesting the MVP award doesn't bear some weight on an individual's legacy, but it doesn't stand in comparison of achievement on the game's grandest stage.People will remember who won the MVP award in any given season, and they will also recall if a player had a great postseason in a losing effort, but the name of the eventual champion will be forever etched in history.Long after the memory of regular season greatness has faded or passed, the concrete evidence of a NBA championship will remain, and can rightly be used to justify the elite status of any player.Think about it.Malone, Stockton, Barkley, Kidd, Nowitzki: all great players whose final destination is the Hall of Fame, yet they are all missing the critical piece which would solidify their legacies.When you really give Dallas Cowboys jersey
it thought, those player's inability to succeed when it mattered the most will be their ultimate legacy, and any debate concerning their status as legendary players will touch on that specific failure.Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kobe Bryant are all great players who cemented their legacies by excelling in the postseason, and any argument concerning those names will end with the fact they were champions.Bryant is a player with wondrous talents, but if he had been unable to win in the postseason, the cries of his many detractors would be amplified, and the impact of his presence would be diminished.Bryant's four championships serve as the last word when discussing his legacy because, even though he has his share of faults, real and perceived, his NBA playoff record stands as a testament to excellence when it mattered the most.Of course all the players previously mentioned will exist as great players regardless if they ever win a championship or not, but for those who feel their status is complete, you are fooling yourselves.The players themselves say they would trade all the regular season awards for one championship, and in a game which thrives on numbers, the final one will always be titles.NBA titles are the only thing which truly separates the legendary players, and for those who performed at a similar level, it is often the determining factor of the better player.So Malone or Duncan?The argument is often made, and for Malone it is lost when considering the ability of Duncan to capture four rings while the title was never delivered to the Mailman.The same line of thought is relevant for any number of players who can be compared on the basis of their talent, but differentiated by their failure to succeed in the postseason.I'm not sure Denver Broncos jersey
how we arrived to the point where the NBA championship is marginalized, but if it stands as the greatest achievement to the best who have ever played the game, then it should exist likewise in our view.Whether you like it or not, great players who utilized the opportunity to lead their teams to the promise land are held in highest esteem.Their performances on the game's grandest stage diminish anything done in the regular season.