How many rings does LeBron have?
The American Basketball Championship, better known as the NBA, is the most famous and popular in the world. It concentrates many stars, true virtuosos of the orange ball. The prestige of this championship and the level of quality of the participating teams make it not easy to win a title. When a team becomes NBA champion and then lifts the famous Larry O’Brien trophy, all players receive a ring. This then becomes an individual reference for each champion player. A few of them have been lucky enough to receive this ring several times.
Bill Russell, record holder
It was William Felton Russell, known as Bill Russell, who received the most rings in the NBA. He holds many records during his career, but it is certainly this one that marks the most the spirits. Indeed, Bill Russell, also inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, won the NBA championship 11 times (1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969). Which corresponds to as many rings. All these rings, the player born on February 12, 1934, won them with a single franchise: the Bolton Celtics where he played for 13 seasons. The Monroe native seemed to know the way to victory with the Celtics well.
Bill Russel was known in particular for his keen sense of competition, which always favored defense and team spirit. If other big names in this American franchise focused on their stats like Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell did not hesitate to do the dirty work and highlight his teammates. In 1966, Russell took the place of his mentor Red Auerbach on the bench and twice became NBA champion (1968 and 1969) as a player-coach. Behind Bill Russell, Sam Jones is in second place with 10 NBA titles. Not far away, there are key players like Tom Heinsohn, KC Jones, Tom Sanders and John Havlicek who have each received the NBA ring 8 times.
The Bolton Celtics: the franchise in the otlight
It is particularly difficult to talk about the record basketball player for rings received in the NBA without mentioning the most successful team, which is the Boston Celtics. Indeed, this American franchise has hosted 9 of the 13 players who have received the most rings in the NBA, therefore the most successful. The Celtics team of the 60s with Russell, greatly dominated the NBA championship for more than ten years, more than the Lakers of the 80’s, the Bulls of the 90’s or the Warriors more recently.
Trained with a master hand by Red Auerbach, the Celtics literally killed all competition during this period with players regularly awarded during the traditional NBA ring ceremonies. This is explained in particular by the workforce as prestigious as it is efficient that the Bolton franchise had put in place. Although they have faced experienced opponents, such as Jerry West or Elgin Baylor, the Bolton Celtics have always managed to annihilate their dreams of glory.
Lebron James, the most successful player still active
If Bill Russell still holds the record for the NBA player who has received the greatest number of rings, the basketball player Lebron James is the player still in activity who has shown the most. Currently a Los Angeles Lakers player, Lebron James has received the prestigious NBA ring 4 times:
- 2 times with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013,
- 1 time with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016,
- 1 time with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.
Each time during these finals, the native of Akron (December 30, 1984) was voted MVP of the finals. In 2018, Lebron joined the Lakers in a club-record transfer on a 4-year, $154 million contract. After a first season marked by injuries, Lebron won the 4th NBA title during the 2019-2020 season where he was associated with Anthony Davis. In February 2021, Lebron becomes the 3rd American professional basketball player after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone, to exceed the 35,000 point mark in the regular season. Currently, he is fighting with his franchise to be among the qualified in the play-offs and thus hope to put a new NBA ring on his finger.
Behind Lebron, there are still active players like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, all Golden State Warriors players, who each received 3 rings. We can also add to this list Udonis Haslem, player of the Miami Heat, who also has 3 rings.
