At the end of every basketball season, the winners of the NBA Finals get rings as a sign of their hard work and triumph.
These personal signs of accomplishment are one of the NBA’s most prestigious awards. Some NBA players, despite being considered some of the most talented the sport has ever seen, never won a Championship ring.
These five great NBA players have never won a championship ring. Some of them still play actively, so maybe one day players like Chris Paul or James Harden will get their ring, along with their flowers.
Patrick Ewing
While the Suns and Jazz were experiencing their disappointment, Patrick Ewing made the New York Knicks a competitive force in the ’90s NBA era. He was great at racking up points in a short amount of time, but he couldn’t get a ring.
He only ever made two Finals games: 1993–94 and 1999–2000. The former was lost to the Houston Rockets, while the San Antonio Spurs dominated the other.
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Reggie Miller
Known as one of the greatest shooters of all time and a clutch player, Miller came tantalizingly close to winning a championship in his 18-year stint with the Indiana Pacers.
His 6’ 7” frame alone was a testament to how he good he was at basketball. Even then, he never got a ring. With the Indiana Pacers, Miller went to the 2000 Finals only to find the Los Angeles Lakers, complete with Kobe and Shaq.
Elgin Baylor
One of the oldest and most influential basketball celebrities is none other than Elgin Baylor.
Despite playing eight Finals games, his generation of Lakers lost all of them. To make matters worse, Baylor’s last games were in the 1971–72 season. He left the NBA only for his team to make it to the Finals and win without him.
Karl Malone
Karl Malone is more famous than Baylor for being great while barely making it to the Finals. He made it three times but Michael Jordan was in his way for two of them denying him of glory. For most of these appearances, he was with the Utah Jazz.
Averaging 25 points a game and being the runner-up for most points in league history at 36,928, Malone is considered one of the NBA’s best players who never got a ring.
Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley also missed out on his championship ring despite playing with some of the best in the sport. The reason is quite simple: he only appeared in the 1993 Finals. Like Malone, there was another player who was dominating the NBA at that time, Michael Jordan.
So, the Phoenix Suns were sent home, and Barkley was with them, and he’d never make the league again. The game saw Barkley scoring 27 points.
Chris Paul
Paul played for the Los Angeles Clippers, the New Orleans Hornets, and the Houston Rockets, and moved to the Suns where he went to to play in an NBA final in 2021.
He led them to the Finals, only to get stopped by the Milwaukee Bucks. Their first game went well, but after that, it was downhill.