In the history of the NBA, no player has more rings than the late Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, who won 11 NBA championships. The next five players on the list were his teammates on that fabled '60s Celtics teams.
When you talk about the modern era, the player who has won the most number of NBA championships is Robert Horry . Big Shot Bob won a total of seven NBA championships while playing for the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, and San Antonio Spurs. However, Horry's former Lakers teammate Shaquille O'Neal claims that he would've been in Horry's place if things had only gone as planned in his career.
"I should've had 8 rings," declared Shaq during his appearance on The OGs Show. "I'm not talking about free throws right now. I'm talking about messed-up opportunity. We should've had two; I should've gotten one or two with Penny. Me and Kob lost to Detroit, we should've gotten that."
"When I first got here, we lost to Detroit; we should've got that one. When I played, I should've gotten that one. And when I was with Boston, we could've gotten that one too. If everything would have gone perfectly, I could have had eight or nine rings right now. I could have been Robert Horry right now."
Shaq would've topped Horry's count
If Big Aristotle says eight or nine, then he would have been better than Horry. O'Neal's feat would have been more impressive because while Big Shot won seven with three teams, Diesel would've gotten eight with five different teams. That would have been something else. But then again, that's just O'Neal talking about what he called missed opportunities.
Looking at Shaq's 'should've won' list, he made the NBA Finals only twice and not won. That was in 1995 when he and Penny were swept by Hakeem Olajuwon and the Rockets, and in 2004, he and Kobe were stunned by Ben Wallace and the Detroit Pistons.
His first year with the Heat in 2005 ended in Game 7 of the Conference Finals against the Pistons. Then, his final two seasons in the NBA with the Cavs and Celtics, which he fantasizes about a lot, both ended in the second round of the playoffs.
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Big Shot could have gotten to eight rings too
But if we're counting missed opportunities the way Shaq is, then Horry could have ended up with 8eight rings too. That's because during the 2005-06 season, the Spurs were 63-19 and the best team in the West when they lost to the Mavs in a second series where they should've won Game 7. However, Big Shot says Manu Ginobili messed up their title hopes .
"People in San Antonio always get mad at me for telling this story. So we're playing Dallas [in the 2006 West Semis], we're up three in Game 7. We said, 'Don't foul.' If they get a layup, fine, take it out. So Dirk has it; he goes to the hole, Manu fouls him, And-1. Dirk goes to the free throw line, makes the free throw, we go into overtime, then we lose. They go on to win the [Western Conference championship]. If Manu doesn't foul, we win that Game 7, we going to win that series, we going to the Finals," he said in Games With Names podcast.
Interestingly, had the Spurs won Game 7 and also beat the Phoenix Suns in the 2006 WCF, they would have faced Big Diesel and the Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals. But just as Shaq's other claims, it was a case of missed opportunity. Horry's ring count remains at seven, while the LSU alumnus has his four.
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