Should NBA Greatness Be Measured By Championships?

What makes a player great? Is it the MVP trophies? Is it the scoring titles? Is it the championships? 

These are questions that are thrown around in every GOAT debate and like it or not, winning titles has a major contributing factor in this decision. Winning is the sole purpose of every NBA player and is a defining element when determining career success. However, where is the line drawn? It's no secret that some players just happen to find themself always on the winning team, and are therefore gifted ring after ring (Jim Loscutoff *cough). In contrast, some of the NBA's greatest ever players left their teams without a single ring on their finger or banner in the sky. So how big a role should Championships play in determining the greatness of NBA players? 

In my mind the answer is simple. Context. The story behind a players NBA ring is what define's their greatness and is exactly why players such as Bill Russell are ever found during legitimate GOAT conversations. With 11 NBA Championships, Bill Russell is undoubtedly one of the most decorated and Thanos-like athletes in American sports history. From 1956-1969, Russell's Celtics remained top of the NBA food chain. Why? He was tall. At 6'10", Russell was 5 inches taller than the league average, and when combined with a 7'4" wingspan, his shot-blocking ability hardly gave anyone else a chance. Russell's dominance also helped his Boston team-mates climb the championship ladder, to the point where the top 5 winningest players in NBA history all originate from the Russell/Celtic era. Talk about a backpack right? 

On the other hand, Robert Hory is the definition of "right place, right time". During his 16 year NBA career, he averaged no more than 12 points per game but nevertheless came out with 7 NBA Championships from 1993-2007. Impressive right? Well, let's just say that this man's luck is nothing short of a miracle. His first two titles came as a rookie and sophomore with the Huston Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994 and 1995. You know, right when Michael Jordan decided to take a break because he was winning too much? But this was just the start. After the Jordan era passed, Hory joined the LA Lakers where he won 3 straight NBA titles from 1999-2002. This would have been a tough task for any player, but lucky for Hory he had some teammates called Kobe and Shaq that made the job slightly easier. Finally, to round of his career, Hory joined the stacked roster of the San Antonio Spurs in 2003 and won 2 additional titles in 2005 and 2007. 

So I think we've determined by this point that the number of rings is not definitive on how great a player is. But what story outranks another? Michael Jordan faced plenty of tough opposition in his journey to Chicago's 6 NBA Championships, but would he have done the same playing in today's era? Would LeBron James' size and strength create a new Bill Russell like era if he played in 1990? My answers are no and no, but that's beside the point. A players greatness is determined by the success he achieves through the adversity he faces. Obviously, it always helps if a player can pick up the odd MVP and scoring title along the way, but at the end of the day, the greater a player's success story is, the more people are likely to remember their greatness.