The biggest dream for all ballers entering the NBA is to win a championship, but only a select few do. For the greats who retire without a ring on their fingers, it’s a tough pill to swallow, but they ultimately realize what was needed to get the job done. Charles Barkley, one of the best to never win a championship, recently weighed in on the same.
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Fans often assume that just filling a roster with superstars is enough for the rings to naturally flow in. But it’s not that simple. The reality is much harsher. Barkley, who dominated the league in his era, never reached the mountaintop.
The Hall of Famer didn’t sugarcoat his own career when addressing the subject. “You have to be honest with yourself as a player, and it’s hard to do. There’s very few times you actually have a chance to win a championship. I played in the NBA for 16 years, I think I had a chance to win the title four times,” he began on Bill Simmons’ podcast.
That’s a sobering statement from a now 62-year-old Barkley. And he’s right. For most players, no matter how talented, the door to a championship opportunity opens only briefly. Sometimes, it never opens at all.
The reason? It’s not just about talent. It’s about timing, health, and roster construction. “It takes a perfect storm to win a championship. You’ve got to have a couple of great players obviously, but all your guys got to be in their prime,” Barkley said.
That ‘perfect storm’ is what makes dynasties stand out. The Warriors had it when Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green all hit their prime together while backed by a deep bench. The Spurs achieved it across multiple eras. The Miami Heat experienced it when the Big Three (LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh) were healthy and in sync. Without that precise alignment, a team’s championship dreams usually collapse.
Barkley pointed to the Denver Nuggets as an example of how fragile this balance can be. “They got the best player in the world, then they got rid of all their guys on the bench. They’re thinking like we’ve got Joker, we got Aaron, we got Michael Porter Jr., we got Jamal, they got no bench.”
Once again, Chuck is correct. Nikola Jokic is arguably the best player in the NBA right now, but even he can’t drag a shallow roster through the grueling marathon of the playoffs. Depth matters, and Denver’s decision to trim its supporting cast could cost them.
That’s the harsh reality of chasing a ring. You can have the best player, but if the pieces around him don’t fit, you’re not winning. Teams often underestimate the value of bench units in playoff battles. One injury, one off night of shooting, or one foul trouble situation, and suddenly it’s your eighth or ninth man deciding whether you advance or go home.
Barkley also gave credit where it’s due, singling out Simmons’ favorite Celtics for making big moves to finally secure their 18th title in 2024.
“Your Celtics, if they don’t go out and get Porzingis, and I don’t want to leave out Jrue Holliday, but if they don’t get Porzingis two years ago, they don’t win the championship.” Boston had the superstar duo in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but it wasn’t enough. They needed the additional versatility that the Latvian provided and the championship pedigree that Holiday brought.
Championships are rare treasures in the NBA. They demand talent, chemistry, health, depth, and luck all at once. Chuck summed it up best. Only a handful of times in a career do you really get a shot. And when that shot comes, everything has to break your way, because even the greatest players can’t win without a perfect storm.
