Correspondents Nick Sinopoli and Kenton Gibbs debate which is a bigger accomplishment for NBA players: earning a championship ring or attaining an Olympic gold medal.

NBA championship rings

Nick’s stance

Carmelo Anthony stated last week that he wouldn’t trade his three Olympic gold medals for an NBA championship ring. He might have said this because he is the only person to have ever won three Olympic gold medals for the U.S. in basketball, or because he realizes he has played for 13 NBA seasons without winning a ring and he may never will. In fact, Anthony’s college coach Jim Boeheim said “He’s unlikely to win an NBA title … He’s never been on a team that even had a remote chance of winning an NBA title.”

We are in an age where super teams dominate the NBA. The last six NBA Finals have featured LeBron James on either the Heat or Cavaliers. We live in an age of superstar players who will team up to win a championship, to create a Big Three, of LeBron James’ “The Decision” when he decided to team up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and of Kevin Durant’s recent signing with the Golden State Warriors. If you aren’t on a super team, your odds of winning a ring are low.

So, Boeheim was right that when he said it is unlikely that Anthony will win a ring since he is approaching retirement and that the New York Knicks historically haven’t done much to help him, until this offseason. The Knicks have acquired Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah to get over the hump, but they shouldn’t be close to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers this upcoming season. If you aren’t LeBron James, your best chance of winning a ring is by being a role player or a bench warmer on a team that has a chance of winning it all. 

If you are on Team USA, winning a gold medal is basically inevitable. Basketball has been an event in the Olympics since the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Out of the last 19 Olympics, the USA has won gold 15 times and six of the last seven. The Olympics are where the world’s best come to compete against one another, but the reason Team USA always wins is because its players are the world’s best basketball players. Olympic medals are great and all, but if you are on Team USA, gold is almost guaranteed. NBA rings are valued higher because they are more difficult to obtain, especially if you aren’t LeBron James. 

Gold medals

Kenton’s stance

Does Darko Milicic belong in the same conversation as Carmelo Anthony in terms of career greatness? Is Eddy Curry’s best season comparable to Patrick Ewing’s average season? Will basketball historians fondly remember the brilliance that was Chris Paul’s on-court performance or will Chris Jent’s nonexistence overshadow it? These comparisons seem ridiculous because they are.

 Three current or future hall-of-famers and three NBA washouts is one way of grouping these six players. Another way is by Olympic gold medalists and NBA Champions. Ewing retired ringless, CP3 and Melo’s careers are winding down and it looks highly possible that they will go out the same way. Milicic and Curry can be found on just about any list of biggest busts in NBA draft history and Jent only actually played in 17 NBA games. 

To even be selected to an Olympic team is an accomplishment in and of itself. There are only 12 roster spots on the U.S. men’s team and around 320 American-born NBA players. So in essence you have to be in the top 4 percent of American players to make the cut. Not to mention being in that elite 4 percent still might not be good enough if the player’s primary position is loaded with talent.

The point of rarity also has to be mentioned in this conversation. The Los Angeles Clippers All-Star center and member of the 2016 Olympic team, DeAndre Jordan bought up an excellent point when he said, “This is even more special because there’s an NBA champion crowned every year, but this is every four years.” We all know that generally speaking, the more common something is the less valuable it becomes. 

Jordan saying that Olympic gold medals “are above NBA rings” is not laughable, and neither were Carmelo’s comments about the fact that he had a remarkable NBA career even if three Olympic gold medals are his greatest achievements. They are factual… to them. When an NBA team wins a championship, everyone, including the guys that are just there for cap space and will likely be released at season’s end, get a ring. 

Some are dismissing their comments as the sentiments of players from traditionally bad teams. However, these are actual NBA players, so who are the fans to tell them what is more or less valuable? Both players have had illustrious careers and Carmelo is the only American basketball player to ever win three gold medals. Their opinions on the game should be valued and taken into consideration, not tossed aside because they go against conventional wisdom.