Guest Artists: Robb Harskamp and Milton Un
Robb Harskamp and Milton Un collaborated on this awesome visual history of every championship ring laid out by team. We love how quickly this visualization tells the story of which teams have won championships, how many they have won, and when they won them. Truly a great reminder of what’s at stake in the Finals!
You can click here to download a hi-res image or click the image above to zoom in for more detail.
With the exception of the 1967 Sixers, all the rings were relatively similar for the first three decades. Starting in the 80′s the rings got more bling, becoming increasingly more elaborate from year to year. Thus, it is easy to see at a glance which teams won their championships recently (Spurs/Bulls), which teams haven’t won a championship in several decades (Knicks), and which teams have a mix (Lakers, Celtics). Also, we found it interesting that 43 of the 64 championships have come from just four teams (Celtics, Lakers, Bulls, Spurs).
We asked Robb and Milton about their inspiration for this amazing illustration:
The NBA Championship ring is that piece of hardware every fan knows about. We can name which franchises have won the most rings, measure our favorite players by rings they’ve won, and even call out the players that have never gotten one in their careers. Dirk “NoRingski”. But, one thing that we don’t always know is what the rings look like. Even the Basketball Hall of Fame doesn’t have a championship ring to showcase! Why? Because each ring is a precious and personal piece to that specific player; unlike the Championship trophies. And no player is willing to give that up.
Be sure to check out Robb and Milton’s work at their websites and follow them on twitter at @robbharskamp and @Miltonun. We love showing off new work from talented folks like Robb and Milton here at Hoopism.com. If you have an idea for a cool project you would like to debut or for a potential collaboration, reach out to us at contact@hoopism.com.
I find it depressing that four teams have won 2/3rds of the titles. That means the chances of your favorite team winning are that much lower than the usual roll of a thirty-sided NBA-themed die. I think I kinda need one of those…
More NBA Depression: http://ohdeargodno.tumblr.com
If you had a version that was by year, not team, I’d buy a poster!
Design-wise, I really like 2008 and 1984 Celtics championship ring and also the 1993 Bulls championship ring. Can’t wait to see the new 2011 Miami Heat ring though =]
That’s really interesting that there were no unique ring designs until 1984. It was the same from 1947-1969 (minus the sixers in 67 who somehow got color on it.) Then a new template from 1970-1983 (with color from 1981-1983.) Very, very cool.
What Rob said!
Pretty crazy that Phil Jackson owns 13 of these!
Excellent display, especially like the simplicity of the ’67 76′ers and the ’82 Lakers. Glad that FB&G linked this very cool site.
Why separate the Washington Bullets and the Baltimore Bullets? They were the same franchise.
“Because each ring is a precious and personal piece to that specific player; unlike the Championship trophies. And no player is willing to give that up.”
I think you mean: “No player except Ron Artest would give up their ring.”
duker:
The Baltimore Bullets of 1948 are not the same as the Chicago “Packers/Zephyrs” / Baltimore/Capital/Washington “Bullets/Wizards” that won the 1978 title. The Original Bullets fizzled out in the mid 50s. The Wizards franchise was born in 1961.
“world champions.” Classic Americanism there. The winner of one country’s club league championship is by no means the “world champion.”
@Paul when the country is has the best league and players in the world i think they can call them world champions. If other leagues, for example euro-league, were of the same class as the nba then why do their best players come to the nba?? an nba champion is very much a world champion simply because no other teams in the world can compete with them. enough said.
Great article, great picture.
I was looking for the new one. Anybody knows, when it will be released ?
@ Adam : Sorry, but it won’t be Miami on the ring this time
Greets
A couple of quick thoughts. First, no more Dirk “Noring”ski!! We got one and we took it from the KING! Just a note for old post from Adam. GO MAVS!
Is it possible that as a fan of an NBA team as the Bulls,that fans can obtain a Championship ring and if so how much would it be and as a COMBAT VET of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM,what type of discount could be offered?
@Mark: I think you mean ‘no player but Metta World Peace would give that up’
FYI. In the 1947-1950 seasons they did not give rings to the winning players. They gave watches. The BAA and the NBL merged prior to the 1949-50 season to form the NBA. The Philadelphia Warriors were the BAA champs in 1947-48. The Mpls.Lakers were the NBL champs. They played in the World Championship in Chicago. The Lakers won the world championship. The following year, the Lakers joined the BAA. This time the Lakers won the BAA championship and again the world championship in Chicago.(The last year of the world championship of professional basketball). The following year, the Lakers won what was truely the first NBA championship. For some unknown reason, the 1947-48 Warriors are credited with being the first NBA champs. The league did not form until 1949-50. The Lakers were truely the world champions from 1947-48 thru 1949-50. The 1946-47 world champs were the Indianapolis Kautskys of the NBL.
@Scott Schaefer
Mr Schaefer do you have any kind of relationship with former Lakers guard Herman H. Schaefer? I would be verry glad if you could see the comment and answer “yes”
I would like to add some things on your comment.
1. On a version of Sports Illustrated’s “The Basketball Book” there is a picture about such awards that they were given to the champions on several dates. One of them was a watch given to the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, the “Nat.L Champs 1945″ as it was written on it. (Nat.L = National League = National Basketball League=NBL)
Is there any chance that the NBL was giving watches as long as they were giving anything to the champions from the leagues foundation until the merging with the BAA and the BAA was giving rings? (i’m just asking i don’t know!)
2. When the merging happened the BAA lured already the 4 teams of the NBL a year before. The NBL had the stars the BAA had the arenas and the teams wanted to play to big arenas so they changed leagues. The thing was that the BAA always wanted every team to play in big arenas because the reason the league was established was to take advantage of the big arenas the owners had when their hockey teams weren’t playing or there weren’t any college basketball games to host. So the small cities of the NBL lasted as long they had stars that the BAA wanted. That continued in the NBA simply because they had all the men in key positions when the merger happened and the most important of all Maurice Poddolof the Commitioner of the BAA that took the reigns of the NBA automatically.
please see this to see how the BAA men rewrote the history of the league and took all the credit
http://www.apbr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1910
the worse part in my opinion
“–At the 1952 All-Star game, a ceremony took place in which players who had been playing since 1946 were honored. Players who had been playing in the NBL since or before that date (like George Mikan) were not included. A Syracuse newspaper columnist found this puzzling, but it’s obvious from our retrospective vantage point that what the NBA was doing was honoring players who had been in the league since its official beginning in 1946. So it was not long after its actual formation in 1949 before the NBA began changing its policy regarding its comparative treatment of its two parent leagues.”
if you like basketball history this book will enlight you about the NBL and how the merge was done. Not what the BAA/NBA says but what really happened
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-4006-1
3. This Book describes the World Championship battles too a turnament that was populated with a big number of NBL teams every year. The last tournament was in 1948 and that was the one the Lakers won. In 1949 there wasn’t a tournament. The BAA wasn’t playing in the tournament and it was in its 3 years strictly a white league. The NBL integrated already during the war in 1941-42 seasons with the Chicago Studebaker Flyers that finished the season and Toledo Jim White Chevrolets that didn’t manage beacause of the war. Of course that is not said anywere instead NBA teams are recognized for drafting awarding contracts and playing black players. Well that not true. NBL even had a fully black team when the Rens played half a season in 1948-49 in the place of the Detroit Vagabond Kings that couldn’t play any longer because of money shortage.
4. All that being said the reason for recognizing the Warriors as 1947 NBA Champions and the Baltimore Bullets as 1948 NBA Champions is that the BAA had full control pushed away any former NBA city that didn’t have stars and the NBA was asking for a big fee to enter new seasons and play that small cities couldn’t manage to pay. At the same time the NBL teams that entered the league in 1948 and 49 they realized that the BAA’s plan was “NBL teams play NBL teams, BAA teams play BAA teams” and they managed to do that in a big way.
What also BAA was doing is having the home team taking all the money from tickets unlike the NBL and the NBL teams that could play many games outside the league schedule and earn the money they needed to survive they couldn’t do it anymore because of BAA/NBA rules. The reasoning was that that is not professional at all (to have outside the league games) But the target of the BAA policies was clear. Have the franchises move to biger cities or stop playing in the league. That BAA plan that the NBA emraced and continued till the day we speak became a reality when the last NBL city Syracuse (Nationals) was abandoned in 1963 with the team becoming the Philadelphia 76ers.
So thats why the Minneaplis Lakers was the Best Professional Basketball team but its title isn’t recognized by the NBA. But the true shame is not that but the fact that instead the NBA recognizes 2 titles of the WEAKER in 1946-47 and 1947-48 BAA as NBA titles instead. And all that to recognize the BAA teams in major cities as the sole founers of the BAA in 1946 and not co-founders along with the NBL owners in 1949.
In any case the Lakers franchise founded in 1946 as Detroit Gems, continuing as the Minneaplis Lakers in 1947 and resulting as LA Lakers in 1960 have Seventeen Professional Championships that they won in Three different Professional Leagues.
Many say that NBL was “minor league” or semi-professional when the leagues merged because of the NBL cities size and place and the lack of stars because of the 4 teams that changed leagues in the summer of 1948. But the fact remains that both leagues were having financial problems when they merged that didn’t abandoned the NBA for 5-6 years after the merger and that is a very good promotionally to play in big cities and arenas but what the NBA established until the late 50s is because of the NBL’s players talent. That was the bigger reason. And even if the NBA from 1949 to 1955 had a “former NBL team” for a Champion the NBA continues to recognize the 3 BAA years as its own ignoring everything that had to do with the league that its talent saved the profssional league that we know today.
If you read that thank you.
…and excuse me for any typo mistakes.
Herm Schaefer was my father.