Ring Chasing

So....this still has an OK shot at happening, despite the Heat only being able to offer Ray Allen $3 million versus what the Celtics or other teams (like the Suns) can offer him.  Ray Allen already has a ring, but presumably he wants more than 1, so that's probably why he wants to join the Heatles, but that brings me to this point.  I've been hearing people complain about Allen (and Jason Terry, among others) wanting to join the Heat, rather than joining another team to dethrone the Heat.  Word?  Where were all of these people when Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined the fucking LAKERS to get a ring?!  Yo Gary Payton is my nigga, favorite guard of all time, I think he's the second-best two-way guard to Jordan, but FOH, you know what he was doing at the end of his career was ring chasing.  It's been around for years, don't bitch about dudes who weren't the #1s on their teams opting to do it now.

While it's more than likely more because everyone wants to win a ring, I wonder how many of these players look at their legacy and realize people will really shit on them for not having a ring (or for only having 1 ring, etc.).  Honestly, they probably don't care, but if you've ever been in a sports debate, you know just how much people weigh rings.  I've heard people genuinely argue that Reggie Miller didn't deserve to be in the HOF because he didn't win a ring.  Or that Patrick Ewing wasn't great because he didn't get a ring.  These days, it would have been Dirk if he didn't win or Kevin Garnett if he didn't win.  Fam...a ring is indeed validation...of a TEAM.  I'm not going to sit here and act like Charles Barkley isn't great because he never got a ring.  Shit is stupid, and in general, ring counting is the type of shit that people engage in when they don't have any other argument.

So overall it's annoying as fuck when on one end, people are saying that if you don't win a ring (or a certain number of rings) you ain't shit, but then when you do things to try to win rings (like team up with All-Stars or join a championship team) you still ain't shit.  Stop moving the goal posts, people.