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Winning a championship ring is the greatest achievement for NBA players. Each team plays 72 matches, 36 home and 36 road, in a regular season to even win an opportunity to appear in the NBA playoffs. Extreme competitiveness, unimaginable efforts, and undeniable skills are displayed by each team.
To be crowned the king of such fierce competition, to be the best of all, is a feeling only the NBA champions and their entourage get to experience. So, to have the honor of wearing a ring is a rare commodity.
These are the five best NBA Players to win a single ring
This list includes the greatest players to have won exactly one NBA ring. All of these players have contributed to the league and the sport. Their game and their performances are a thing of legend.
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#5 Jason Kidd
Sometimes, when you are so engrossed following an exceptional NBA player, you can't help but feel their greatness run down your spine like a netherworldly chill. Jason Kidd is one of those. The Dallas Mavericks legend won his first and only ring in 2010-11 after 14 previous playoff appearances.
Playing for the New Jersey Nets, Kidd reached two NBA finals in 2002 and 2003. He put up his best ever playoff performance in 2002 where he averaged 19.6 points, 9.1 assists, and 8.2 rebounds.
Kidd was always a flashy player. He wasn't as good a scorer from beyond the three-point line but inside the paint he could score at will. His agility and creativity allowed him to move around defenders with the grace and quickness of a ballerina. His hang time, his layup package, his ball handling, and his jumping prowess were scary good.
Due to such performances over the years, Kidd is placed fifth on our list of the greatest NBA players to have exactly one ring.
#4 Dirk Nowitzki
Dirk Nowitzki is one of those few players to have played for only one team all his career. His loyalty to the Mavs Nation was unrivaled. So was his one-legged fadeaway, a shot that is widely considered one of the most unstoppable moves of all time.
All over his career, the 7' 0" german giant would confront his opponent near the paint, pivot on his leg and fall away. With the ball released above his head, it was by all means an unguardable move. He could beat much bigger, stronger defenders. Combined with the fact that he was confident enough to attempt this shot even in high stakes situations and had the accuracy to make his signature move a high scoring one made him one of the most feared players on the court.
Nowitzki, debuting in the 1998 NBA class, graduated in 2019. Over this long and illustrious career, he reached consecutive NBA playoffs from 2000-01 to 2011-12. He played in three more postseasons.
Nowitzki won his first and only ring in the 2010-11 NBA Championship. In the tournament, he averaged 27.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, and a massive 46% three-pointers made.
#3 Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett started his NBA career while playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves and reached 8 playoffs with them. In his career-best postseason performance, Garnett averaged 24 points and 18.7 rebounds. That season, at 2001-02, he maintained a 50% three-pointers made.
Garnett was known as one of the greatest shooters ever in the NBA. The 6' 11" power forward could knock down jump shots from any position and still dominate the paint. "Whoever controls the rebounds controls the game" was one of the most memorable lines from the 90s anime Slam Dunk. Kevin Garnett was the personification of this line.
He played his NBA Championship-winning run alongside his Boston Celtics teammates Paul Peirce, Rajon Rondo, and Ray Allen. He averaged 20.4 points and 10.5 rebounds in that playoffs.
#2 Jerry West
Jerry West is on the list of greatest scorers and players of all time and he has the numbers to prove that. He averaged an unbelievable 27 points, 6.7 assists, and 5.8 rebounds over the span of his 14-year-long career. A great ball handler and shooter, Jerry West was called Mr. Clutch for being the most reliable player on the court at crucial moments. His incredible focus and will to win made him the legend he was.
The LA Lakers legend took his team to the NBA Finals nine times and is rumoured to have scored a quadruple double in his career. During West's NBA days, blocks were not an official statistic, but he is rumoured to have scored 44 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists, 10 blocks and all that while standing only at 6' 3".
Those numbers should be reason enough to understand why Jerry West ranks second on this list. Another interesting fact about Jerry West is that the NBA Logo is allegedly his silhouette. Mr. Clutch won his only championship ring in 1972, when he averaged 22.9 points and 8.9 assists in the playoffs.
#1 Oscar Robertson
"The Big O," a 6' 5" guard who grew up in poverty in the city of Charlotte, Tennessee, is the No. 1 NBA player to have won exactly one ring. Oscar Robertson played for the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in his career and averaged 25.7 points and 9.5 assists.
He was the only player before Russell Westbrook to have averaged a triple double over the duration of a season. He averaged an unbelievable 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists. It is safe to say that Oscar was the perfect example of a complete basketball player.
He was good at dominating under the rim, scoring lethal jumpshots, and driving-in to score quick layups. Another one of his lesser acknowledged abilities was rebounding. He would regularly compete with big men and snatch rebound after rebound, helping his team constantly attack the opponents.
Oscar won his only NBA Championship ring in 1971 with the Milwaukee Bucks.
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