Top 5: Undeserving NBA Champions of the Last Decade.

Baby Morrison won an NBA Championship?

Another recent article from Trueball to get things rolling here at Raptors Rapture. From now on Raptors Rapture will feature new articles from myself, TM, and RM; focusing on Raptors offseason updates.

With the LA Lakers winning the NBA Championship last week a funny thing happened, Adam Morrison was given an NBA Championship after heroically cheering his team on from the bench. There aren’t many players in the history of the NBA that have been less involved in their teams championship run than Adam Morrison but there are some out there. So today we bring you the top 5 most undeserving NBA Champions in the last decade:

5) Gary Payton/Alonzo Mourning (2006 Miami Heat): Both Payton and Mourning were unable to win an NBA Championship on their own so they decided to meet up in Miami to watch Wade and Shaq win them the ring. Morning made his way to Miami after a weird set of transactions. Mourning was unhappy with the situation in New Jersey and asked to be traded, so he was sent to Toronto in the Vince Carter deal. Before Reebok could even start making Mourning jerseys he demanded to be bought out because he wanted to be on a winning team. Then quickly rejoined his old Heat team which was already the #1 seed in the East. Payton’s journey went through Seattle, Milwaukee, Boston, and Atlanta before ending up in Miami. Payton and Mourning were good players but had to do everything other sell their souls to the devil to finally win a championship ring.

Payton and Mourning trying to get as close to the trophy as possible as to make it seem like they earned it.

4) Adam Morrison (2009 LA Lakers): Morrison was the #3 overall pick in 2006 by the Charlotte Bobcats after he was compared to Larry Bird (tall white scorer) during his career at Gonzaga. Once Morrison got into the league that opinion of him changed very quickly. Morrison did score over 11 points per game in his rookie season but had one of the worst PERs among players who played significant time on their teams. It looked as if Morrison had a chance to be a role player on the young Bobcats team if he could improve off his rookie numbers in his sophomore season. However before the season Morrison torn his ACL, his career has never been the same. Upon his return Morrison couldn’t even get a spot on the Bobcats roster and was traded to LA along with Shannon Brown in exchange for Radmonavic. Once on LA Brown showed the skills that made him a national star at Michigan State but Morrison continued to struggle. During the playoffs the Lakers decided to leave Morrison on the bench in a “suit” while Brown, who was supposed to be the worse player in the trade, was looking like Fisher’s heir aparent in LA. Did Morrison’s superior towel waving skills give the Lakers the necessary boost that helped them win the ’ship? Who knows. But one thing is for sure, it wasn’t Morrisons on court performance.

Hey there Adam, wheres your uniform? Oh right you didn't dress all playoffs.

3) Antonio Daniels (1999 San Antonio Spurs): The former #4 overall pick of the short lived Vancouver Grizzlies somehow won a championship in his second year. After an underwhelming rookie season the Grizzlies, Daniels was traded away to the Spurs just in time for their 1999 Championship. I mean seriously does anyone outside of Spurs fans remember anyone on that team other than David “The Admiral” Robinson and Tim Duncan? Daniels has gone on to have a very successful career backing up: Gary Payton in Seattle, Gilbert Arenas in Washington, and Chris Paul in New Orleans. The fact that Daniels was traded to the Spurs who were the worst team in the league in ‘98 and won the title in ‘99 is nothing short of a miracle.

Spurs '99 title team in action. You will notice Daniels is not pictured.

2) Darko Milicic (2004 Pistons): Milicic was the #2 pick in the 2003 draft, selected before Carmelo, Bosh, and Dywane Wade. Milicic was supposed to be a project that could end up like Dirk Nowitski a few years after the draft. Well now Milicic is in Memphis and still isn’t starting despite the team being among the bottom 5 in the league. But during his 2 years in Detroit he managed to come away with a championship ring despite contributing next to nothing all season long.

Where's Darko?

1) John Salley (Detroit ‘89 ‘90, Bulls ‘96, Lakers ‘00): Easily the most undeserving of anyone on this list. Why? Because not only did John Salley win a championship… he won FOUR! First of all John Salley was selected in the first round the same year the Pistons selected unknown prospect Dennis Rodeman from a small college. Well one is a HOF player and the other was recently fired from the “Best Damn Sports Show”, guess which one was John Salley? Salley won his first two rings with the Pistons, the next one with the Jordan Bulls, and the last on the Kobe and Shaq Lakers. Other recent players with 4 rings: Shaq, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher. That tells you how lucky John Salley was in his career. God bless the guys though, he knew how to get signed by great teams and ride the bench.

Salley even crashed the 2004 Pistons Championship celebrations. Have you no shame John?

-KC Roberts