A team must have a Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or LeBron James to drag it to a championship. However, it also must have role players like Ron Harper and Ron Artest (Metta World Peace), who are never scared or jealous of egotistical superstars and could challenge them in achieving their target in practice, and help them when it’s game time. Gilbert Arenas in all his wisdom, or lack thereof, understood this.
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Steve Kerr, John Paxon, and Ron Artest are all remembered for helping MJ and Kobe win at least one championship. There would be no ring in 2016 for LeBron if not for JR Smith.
However, we barely talk about how selflessly, these role players contribute to their teams throughout the season. Being a problem to the best players in training helps them sharpen their skills and sink the big shots in games. Gilbert Arenas touched upon the subject recently.
“Michael Jordan needed Ron Harper, and Kobe Bryant needed Ron Artest”: Gilbert Arenas
In a Gil’s Arena episode, former 3x All-Star, Gilbert Arenas, discussed the importance of role players, without whom there would be no championships for the superstars. As those are the players whose fearlessness provides the boost to the team to go against other star-studded teams in the league. Arenas said,
“So, the idea of stars, right? People like Kobe [Bryant], LeBron [James], [Michael] Jordan, when you look at the players that were added to their teams, it was players that challenged them. Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman, Ron Artest, Matt Barnes. You’re talking about guys who really said, ‘I don’t give a f*ck if you’re Jordan, I don’t give a f*ck if you Kobe,’”
He continued about how role players carry their teams by not backing down against other teams’ superstars, “So, that means if we are playing against Tracy McGrady, he’s not gonna back down. ‘He didn’t back down to me, he’s not gonna back down to the next superstar.’ That lets that person [the superstars] know he’s a warrior.”
What a fantastic breakdown by Gil to make us understand why Kobe recruited Matt Barnes and why MJ went on to team up with Dennis Rodman.
MJ recruited a long-time rival, Dennis Rodman, for the same reason
Dennis Rodman joined the Bulls after beating the living hell out of Jordan and Scottie Pippen. He beat the Bulls when he was with the Pistons thrice in the Playoffs. Between 88’ and 90’ he had helped Isiah Thomas win his two championships in 3-straight Finals appearances.
But Dennis didn’t join the Bulls overnight. Jordan, then a 3-time NBA MVP, who had already led his team to win 3 championships, had to swallow his pride and meet Rodman in the presence of Pippen and head coach Phil Jackson to convince him to play in Chicago.
MJ already had his Robin in Scottie. They might have still won a championship after losing the 1995 Finals, but they were not definitely 3-peating if it wasn’t for the monster on the board, ‘Dennis the Menace’.
