Stop Putting an Asterisk on Every NBA Champion

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Image via USA Today Sports

I get it. This NBA season—we’re talking regular and postseason—has been unusual, kind of discouraging, and completely out of whack for all the obvious reasons.

Just do me a favor, please, and miss me with all this talk about slapping an asterisk on whoever ends up winning the title come July. Because it’s a tired and lazy trope and I wish I could mute all the basketball fans whining on Twitter about how messed up the 2020-21 season and playoffs have been which somehow should devalue the legitimacy of the new champion.

Sure, a crazy combination of COVID protocols and a barrage of injuries have decimated the drama and star power of a star-driven league during its most important games. You know what? That’s basketball. Like life, it doesn’t always go according to plan. So instead of rehashing the same nonsense, how about we just enjoy the hoops and appreciate that each run is unique.

Easier said than done, of course, when you’re talking about an argument that really only exists on Twitter dot com these days, but to me, it feels like far too many NBA fans have already dismissed the eventual champion as illegitimate and we haven’t even reached the conference finals yet. Maybe it’s just fans being fans, maybe it’s just a reflection of our society where we love tearing down people (or entities) before they reach the top, or it’s something else I can’t quite pinpoint. Whatever the actual reason, I got in my feelings about asterisks—for the third straight season—after clicking on a link Tom Haberstroh tweeted out earlier this week.

It was a piece the veteran NBA scribe/reporter penned last summer just before the league ramped back up in Orlando. He tried to head off the whole “does this year’s champion deserve an asterisk” debate by perfectly pointing out how you could place that awkward symbol next to every NBA champion dating back to the 1950 Minneapolis Lakers.

You know why? Because crazy, stupid shit happens all the time in sports where one wrong bounce of the ball, one turned ankle, one missed call, or something else entirely out of a team’s control 86s their shot at a title. What’s gone down during the 2020-21 NBA regular and postseason is approximately the four billionth example of that.

“Everybody wants to put an asterisk on everything. And the truth is that’s a part of sports,” four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird told me Wednesday. “The news just came out about Chris Paul and sadly the world we live in with COVID right now that’s a part of sports. There are things out of your control. And they happen every year. So what makes any year different from the next when these types of moments take place?”

Thank you, Sue. Yes, an elevated amount of injuries to star players—and a truly bonkers situation involving CP3—have zapped some of the fun and good vibes normally associated with the calendar’s best basketball. Only an idiot would say otherwise. With the news Wednesday that Kawhi Leonard may have suffered an ACL injury, a stupefying eight All-Stars have sat out a game this postseason. Some of the injuries can be traced back to the condensed season and abbreviated offseason and the league deserves criticism for that. LeBron James was vocal about that on social media. Others—like Kyrie Irving’s severely sprained ankle—are just bad luck injuries occurring at the worst possible time. Should CP3, out indefinitely due to the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, miss any games in the Western Conference Finals, that would make it nine All-Stars missing action this postseason. It sucks and it obviously hurts the NBA. You want the best balling against the best this time of year. Rightfully or wrongfully, fans who stuck through a brutal regular-season kind of feel like that’s owed to them.

But it is what it is when it comes to all the injuries and—if you haven't been paying attention—championship runs are often incredibly arbitrary. Just because the conditions weren’t perfect, or the road to the NBA Finals wasn’t the hardest ever, doesn’t mean whoever gets to hold the Larry O’Brien Trophy this summer isn’t legitimate. Each journey, each story is different and deserves respect as well as context. Lakers/LeBron haters have lamely labeled last year’s title, which featured a mental and emotional toll unlike any other in NBA history, a Mickey Mouse ring. Is San Antonio’s 2007 championship any less valuable just because it came against that sorry Cavs squad? Are you dumb enough to hate on the great Hakeem Olajuwon because his back-to-back titles came when Michael Jordan was largely out of the NBA?

Control what you can control and beat whoever is in front of you. The new champion shouldn’t be shamed for raising a banner come the fall just because Anthony Davis and James weren’t at full strength for the Lakers. Nor should they be clowned because Leonard’s knee wobbled against the Jazz, Mike Conley’s missed a bunch of games, Joel Embiid isn’t close to 100 percent, two-thirds of the Nets’ big three happen to be banged up, or Paul ends up missing a few games while in isolation. Luck matters when it comes to winning a ring. Always has, always will.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to win four times and there’s a little bit of luck that goes into winning a championship,” says Bird. “And I’ve also been on the unlucky side of it where there’s been years our best player got injured and couldn’t play in the playoffs. That’s what it is.”

This whole asterisk narrative, of course, isn’t new and it will probably never die the death it deserves. I’ve penned more than a few pieces about it. Two Junes ago, I provocatively pondered whether the Raptors deserved to have one attached to their title after defeating the wounded Warriors. Before the NBA headed to the bubble last summer, with all the unique circumstances surrounding the Association’s return, I brought the debate back up. For a third straight season, I’m coming to the same conclusion.

The only thing this year’s NBA champion deserves is adulation. Get the fuck outta here with your asterisk.