Tracy McGrady is bound for the basketball Hall of Fame and said this recently:
“Social media can give a lot of people voices these days, and the first thing they say is ‘No rings, no rings.’ You have to have a great team and some luck to get a ring, right? Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with that. But I go back at them with this: Anybody can win a championship. Everybody can’t get in the Hall of Fame.
J.R. Smith, who picked up a ring with LeBron James in Cleveland, has a real issue with that.
This man really said "anyone can win a ring but not everyone can make it to the Hall Of Fame?" Soooo no one else thinks that dumb as hell???
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) July 31, 2017
FACTS!! People who did nothing make the hall!! If it was like MLB ok but Basketball hall a fame you can build a park an get in!! https://t.co/0gEkFoQ7hN
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) July 31, 2017
So you played for the Hall an not to win. If I was on his team we fighting idc if we don't play no more. Don't waste my time. Not wit hoop!
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) July 31, 2017
There is an obvious bias from both sides. And both sides have a point — although I lean McGrady.
I get what Smith is saying. Guys who win a ring and contribute to it have a lot to be proud of — and Smith is one of those. To get that ring requires sacrificing numbers for the bigger picture, it requires playing on both ends, it requires commitment, and it requires and ability to play under pressure. McGrady didn’t even get close to that as a leader of a team — he never made it out of the first round until he was a bench warmer with the Spurs at the end of his career.
However, McGrady also has his point, not all guys who have rings earned them — Darko Milicic, Adam Morrison, Eddy Curry and on and on. Every year, rings go to guys who didn’t contribute much. And yes, entrance into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame — remember, this is not an NBA hall (we still need one of those) — can reward the old boys club of basketball administrators, some older players in with the veterans committee, and some players who get in on international credentials.
That said, the NBA guys who are in are the elite. The cream of the crop. The best who ever played the game. And that can be a harder club to crack.
To me, what we need is an NBA only Hall of Fame, however, it iw hard to imagine that coming in the next dozen years.