The Importance of Role Players
Showtime Lakers, Miami Big 3, 1990’s Chicago Bulls, Shaq and Kobe Lakers, Bill Russell’s Celtics. When you think of all those teams you think dynasty. When you think about the dynasties you think about the stars, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal. But it’s never the stars that create these dynastic teams, it’s often the role players who are under-appreciated, and those role players are the ones that make the team who it is.
Take the Showtime Lakers as a prime example; all people talk about is Magic, Kareem, and James Worthy. People tend to ignore the play of Michael Cooper, and A.C. Green. I guarantee you that the Showtime Lakers would only win one or no championships at all. You can look at A.C. Green’s “Iron Man” character, and how he held the consecutive games played streak. Then you can’t look over Michael Cooper’s impact. Cooper was the only player besides Magic and Kareem to play with every championship Laker team during the Showtime dynasty.
We can’t talk about dynasties without mentioning the 1990’s Chicago Bulls. Sure, the greatest player ever (Michael Jordan) was alongside Scottie Pippen and that’s why the Bulls won 6 championships in 8 years right? You couldn’t be more wrong. Lets go to 1987; the Bulls select Horace Grant with the 10th pick, and trade Charles Oakley to the New York Knicks for Bill Cartwright. When the Bulls got Cartwright, they got a much-needed defensive-minded center. Cartwright ended up being huge in the playoffs with his defense on Knicks star Patrick Ewing one of the reasons they pushed past them in the playoffs. Jordan had so many role players help him to championships; Jon Paxson, B.J Armstrong, Bill Cartwright, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr, Luke Longley, and Toni Kukoc. I don’t know if the Bulls would have won Game 5 of the 1991 NBA Finals if it weren’t for Jon Paxson. With the Bulls trailing in the fourth quarter sparked a big run where he scored 10 points, leading to a Game 5 victory and Jordan’s first title. In 1992, in a clinching Game 6 against the Portland Trailblazers, down 15 points, Phil Jackson replaced Jordan with Hansen, which led to Hansen leading the bulls on a 17-2 run, and then they put Jordan back in to seal the deal. In 1993, Jon Paxson hit a game winning 3 pointer against the Phoenix Suns. After Jordan retired for the first time, the Bulls got MORE great role players, they got Kerr, Kukoc, and Longley this offseason, and we all know how big of an impact those role players had. All of the players besides Armstrong, Paxson, Grant, and Cartwright were key role players in the Bulls’ second three-peat.
Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers also had some of the best role players to ever do it. Rick Fox, Derrick Fisher, Robert “Big Shot Bob” Horry, Horace Grant, and Grant Rice. We can look at Derrick Fisher and there’s maybe the best role player ever, he is one of the only point guards ever to win 5 championships, and he was a vital piece of every one of those teams.
The Big 3 in Miami that dominated the league from 2010-2014 was stacked with role players; Norris Cole, Udonis Haslem, Rashard Lewis, Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen, and Shane Battier. The Heat wouldn’t have won the NBA Championship in 2013 if it weren’t for Battier and Ray Allen. For Battier he hit 5 threes in a piviotal game. But the biggest moment was when the Heat were facing elimination in Game 6 and Chris Bosh grabbed a offensive rebound off of the LeBron James miss and kicked it out to Ray Allen in the corner, who rose up, and knocked down a three pointer with 5 seconds remaining to tie the game up, that the Heat won in overtime, and then won in Game 7.
Overall, what people tend to overlook in bench players and role players, is that, for bench players, they make the starters better if they accept their role, and for role players, they make the superstars better. Bench and role players win you championships and that speaks to their body of work and commitment. That is the importance of the role player.
