A Myth of Championship Proportions

“I think the players win the championship, and the organization has something to do with it, don’t get me wrong. But don’t try to put the organization above the players.”

— Michael Jordan

Like many people who have extended commutes to work, I find that I spend an inordinate amount of time each day locked into the confines of my 2007 Prius. On most days, I loathe the necessary evil of this twice daily excursion as part of an ever-winding, slow-slithering serpent of metal, rubber and brake lights… especially my return journeys following a full work day. Frequently, audio books, Pandora comedy channels and sports talk radio are my only companions on my own personal Groundhog Day journeys. During basketball season, however, I occasionally get lucky enough to catch some post-game interviews on Cleveland radio (courtesy of Radio.com) following Cavalier victories (conversations after losses don’t put me in quite as road-friendly of a disposition).

Perhaps the only thing more satisfying than revisiting soundbites and analysis from a Cavs win, is switching over to the local sports radio stations, and listening to the abject frustration of L.A. fans after each successive Lakers’ loss. Oh, how far the once great prototypical “championship organization” has fallen, and in such a short amount of time. This was the recurring theme being spouted with vitriol and disbelief from callers this past Tuesday night, as the Lakers (or Fakers as dubbed by one fiery fan) dropped to 1-6 on the season with a loss to another more recent “championship organization,” the Miami Heat.

This got me ruminating on a recent media-driven narrative about how the Cavs aren’t a “championship organization” — simply because they have not yet actually won a championship. Of course, given the state of most of the other teams who have been referred to as such, it certainly rings like a hollow accolade at best.

To provide the proper context to my musings on this subject, I need to go back and revisit the contents of a Brian Windhorst article, Can LeBron James replicate a model home?, that appeared on Halloween, following a wine & gold victory over this same Miami Heat team. In it, Windhorst stated that while the Cavs have made strides on both the court and in the front office, that they are not yet breathing the same rarified air as the South Beach champs… and that LeBron is well aware of this.

“However, there is something he is missing. Something he is still pursuing that he had in Miami. The Heat are, and have been for some time now, a championship organization. The Cavs, to this point, are not.”

Much of what Windy covered in this piece has merit, and there’s no denying the truth that while the Cavs have had two trips to the Finals, and come just two wins shy of a title, they don’t yet have the hardware to show for their efforts. But, this assertion about the Heat status as a “championship organization” relies more heavily on past achievements than current events. In fact, from a semantics standpoint, only one organization can be the reigning champion each year (welcome to the party Golden State).

The “Big Three-peat”

The lion’s share of the championship pedigree for Miami emanates from the “sockless curmudgeon” himself, Pat Riley. He certainly was no stranger to rings even before he brought his Gordon Gekko hairdo and management style to South Beach, winning one title as a player in 1972, one as an assistant coach in 1980, and four more as the head coach for the Showtime Lakers of the 80s. After moving to the GM office in Miami for a while, he returned to the sidelines to coach the Heat to a title in 2006, before turning the reins over to Eric Spolstra and sitting back to watch his assembled “Big Three” grab two more rings for his collection. If you’re counting along at home, that’s just a pinkie ring short of a two-handed set (although Riles did have three copies of each — one gold, one silver, one platinum — to go with whatever he may be wearing on a particular day).

Being a part of nine championships is nothing to sneeze at, and makes Riley one of the most prolific ring bearers in NBA history… although he is still four shy of Phil Jackson’s 13 finger trinkets (and much like Tiger chasing the Golden Bear, likely always will be).

@sthomas141 here’s the best I can do…the 2 Knick rings are in the front of the picture. pic.twitter.com/JP1c2gH45C

— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) May 14, 2013

Yes, Riles has a formidable championship resume… though when you really break it down, the first two rings were earned by being a part of the right team, first as a bench player, then as an assistant coach. Three of the next four were won with a “Big Three” combination of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy (with Jamaal Wilkes as the third wheel in the 1981 championship), and supporting cast stars like Byron Scott, Mychal Thompson, Norm Nixon and A.C. Green. And, finally, two of his three rings in Miami were the direct result of having yet another historic “Big Three” of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. The outlier, and possibly the most impressive championship ring, was earned on Riley’s return to the sideline to coach the Heat to a fairly improbable Finals victory over the Dallas Mavericks in 2006. On the backs of a transcendent DWade, an aging Shaquille O’Neal and a bevy of role players, he coached the Heat out of an 0-2 hole to win the next four games, and give Miami its first ever NBA championship.

So, aside from 2006, Riley had the benefit of having a troika of arguably top ten players on every one of his championship teams as a head coach, GM or President of these two organizations. Yet, in the years between his last title with the Lakers and his first with the Heat, he had mostly disappointing and title-less runs as the head coach of the Knicks (1991-1995) and the Heat (1995-2003). The common denominator for those fruitless years was the lack of a distinctive “Big Three.” What he did have with both the Lakers and later on with the Heat, were two owners that were willing to open their pocketbooks to court and pay for the most talented players in the game. Both Dr. Jerry Buss and Mickey Arison respectively spared (almost) no expense to stockpile arsenals of weaponry to provide Riles with the tools necessary to capture the hardware when it mattered most.

It’s fair to say the Heat, during the “Big Three” era was a “championship organization,” yet the perception of that nomenclature came just as much (if not more) from the players themselves as the men who helped construct it. Without LeBron and Bosh agreeing to uproot and join their pal DWade in South Beach, those titles don’t happen, and the organization isn’t seen in quite the same light. And, now that LeBron has left them to come home (and form a newer and younger “Big Three”), can Miami still realistically be considered a “championship organization” in the truest sense? Wouldn’t doing so require more than a remote possibility that they could even contend for a title this year and into the foreseeable future?

Laker Lean and Faded Green

The other traditional “championship organizations” in the league, namely the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, now dwell in the shadows of their respective historic pasts.

When I moved to Los Angeles, nearly 20 years ago now, the Lakers were just coming out of their “lean years” during a similar down cycle following the end of the Showtime era. Jerry West managed to hoodwink the Charlotte Hornets into trading the rights to Kobe Bryant for Vlade Divac, and then pulled off a major free agent coup by signing Shaq away from the Orlando Magic — continuing the tradition of bringing the NBA’s premier big man of the era to L.A. Once the Lakers tapped former Bulls coach, Phil Jackson, to run his triangle offense starting in 1999, the purple and gold returned to their dynastic ways. This incarnation ripped off three straight titles and looked unstoppable until the Kobe/Shaq feud got out of hand.

Even Kobe flew the Laker car flag…

It was in those days that I first came to intensely dislike prototypical Laker fans. The hubris and arrogance on constant display was borderline unbearable. Even if I wanted to root for Kobe, Shaq and company, I still don’t think I would have out of pure spite for this attitude of entitlement. During this time, Laker flags flew from nearly every other car, and the L.A. dynasty appeared ready to stick around for a while. Even after Shaq lost the internal war of attrition and got shipped out to win a title in Miami, Dr. Buss and Mitch Kupchak managed to flip the script a few years later, and abscond with another top big man in Pau Gasol. This maneuver kept the Lakers firmly in the conversation as a “championship organization,” as they were able to run off two more titles in three years, the last one coming in 2010. However, in the years since, the Lakers have been plagued and derailed by a series of injuries, poor management decisions, ill-fitting coaches, the unfortunate passing of Dr. Buss, and one albatross of a contract.

Five years removed from their 16th and most recent championship, the Lakers still maintain that they are a “championship organization,” despite the bastion of disfunction and disappointment they appear to be to the outside world. Even their staunchest and most steadfast fans have turned fairweather on them, in this now third straight year of re-building around the aged, oft-injured and vastly overpaid Kobe Bryant. Several callers on my aforementioned ride home earlier this week were already demanding the head of Coach Grumpy, and probably with good reason as Lord Byron abjectly refuses to let the Lakers’ young guns play and develop for the future (sound familiar?). And, it doesn’t look to get much better anytime soon, as L.A. (once the ultimate free agent destination), has been spurned by nearly every big name in the last few years of free agency. Even Melo wanted no part of what the Buss kids were selling, deciding instead to stay in New York with uncle Phil. Yet, the Lakers continue to point to the banners hanging from the rafters of the Staples Center, put together nostalgic presentations, and bang the drum of their storied history in a vain attempt to keep the facade of their once great “championship organization” propped up.

With the signs pointing to Kobe finally hanging it up after this, his 20th season in the NBA (one ring shy of MJ), the Lakers might finally be able to admit that it’s time to let go of the past. Unfortunately for them, they had to learn things the hard way about holding onto stars past their prime, just like the Celtics did. At least Danny Ainge is a step ahead of the west coasters, having jettisoned his own aging “Big Three” two years ago (which was still probably a year or two too late), in favor of a young stable of potential. But, even Ainge has had to manage expectations, as Celtic pride doesn’t spend like it once did. He’s had better luck on the coaching front than the Lakers have, yet has only been able to procure a proliferation of post players on his young squad. The Celtics this year could be dubbed “Team Forward” — not because that’s necessarily the direction they are moving, but because half of their roster play that position.

So, these are the the two premiere “championship organizations” of the sport, owning more than half (33) of the 65 NBA titles thus far. Neither seems remotely close to living up to that description anytime soon.

The Old Gunslingers And The New

Until last year, outside of the Lakers and a solo title for the Mavericks, the only other Western Conference team to win titles in this millennium were the San Antonio Spurs. Though they technically always seem to have a “Big Three” of their own (in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili), they arguably come the closest to the definition of a “championship organization.” That’s primarily due to the fact that their model of consistency has succeeded over the course of nearly two decades now, and their system is built to be unselfish and interchangeable from management on down to the players. The fact that they’ve been able to maintain high levels of quality, despite being a small market team without a traditionally deep-pocket owner in Peter Holt, is a testament to the way they conduct their business both on and off the court. Though some of their parts are finally showing their age, they were still able to land the biggest free agent acquisition this past summer, as well as re-sign several of their important younger cogs for the future.

And, finally, the most newly-minted “championship organization” is the one that currently has the hardware in hand. What Golden State accomplished last season caused many to anoint them as possibly the next great dynasty in the NBA. But, prior to actually winning the Larry O’Brien trophy, would most people outside of the Bay Area have considered them a potential championship organization? The accolades were there after the fact, with rookie head coach, Steve Kerr, winning Coach of the Year honors, and GM Bob Myers locking up NBA Executive of the Year for assembling the current team. Yet, it was an MVP season from Steph Curry, along with breakout years from Klay Thompson and Draymond Green that drove the Warriors to a league best 67 wins and a title over an injury riddled Cavs team. Given their now 10-0 start to this year’s campaign, it looks like they are picking up where they left off, however, they might find more significant resistance in the post-season this time around.

So, What’s Missing?

Let’s ignore the obvious for a moment and focus on the elements of this Cavaliers team and how they potentially fit the criteria of a “championship organization.” First, they have an owner who is unafraid to do or spend whatever it takes to bring a championship to Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.

“Every time we get off that plane in downtown Cleveland, for us it’s about winning a championship for Cleveland,” he said. “When we bought the team it was probably 40 or 41 (years since a title) and now it’s 51 and it will be 52 soon — in 2016. That’s really what we are driven by. You become enamored with the people of Cleveland and the fact that it’s generational here. The city is passionate and we feel it’s our obligation to deliver a championship.”

There is no question about this after the unprecedented spending spree Dan Gilbert endorsed this past summer. He gave David Griffin a blank check to re-sign all seven of the Cavs’ free agents, plus bring in two key vets. It led LeBron to remark that the Cavs owner is “committed to winning” after the team shelled out $330 million in contracts to tie up Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and Iman Shumpert.

“It’s a sign that he’ll do anything to help us go out there and perform,” said James.

Second, the Cavs have a shrewd and gutsy GM in David Griffin who has proven time and again in his brief tenure that he is unafraid to make bold moves to provide the team with the personnel to make a difference.

Third, the Cavs have a, now battle-tested and no longer rookie, head coach in David Blatt. Blatt has been a winner and a champion for years in the Euroleague, and despite a couple of rocky patches last season, still got to the Finals in his inaugural coaching tour. With a year under his belt, Blatt seems to have the faith and respect of his players. Here’s what Kyrie Irving had to say about him in his recent GQ interview…

“For me, what really stuck out, and some people probably won’t give him credit for this, but he’s the true embodiment of a player’s coach. And he played. He may not have played in the NBA or at the highest level, but he understands players and he understands how a team should be run. Coach Blatt is a great coach and a great person, and I wouldn’t want anyone different. Especially after the playoff run we went on last year, what we accomplished throughout the season.”

And, finally, they also have their own “Big Three” that happens to be surrounded by a tremendously deep supporting cast of characters. A “Big Three” that is anchored by the man who has taken his teams to five straight NBA Finals, and who is poised to continue to do so for several years to come.

The instant LeBron James returned to this organization, it once again became a championship contender. As Windhorst correctly pointed out, LeBron does hold tremendous sway within the organization on every level, and rightly so, as he’s learned how to be a champion. Because of his influence, but even more because of his leadership on and off of the court, he brings the ultimate legitimacy to the Cavaliers’ bid to be considered a “championship organization.”

All that’s missing to memorialize it is a trophy…

Personally, I expect that to change come June.