How many rings charles barkley

As a player, Charles Barkley was perhaps the greatest anomaly in basketball history. Listed at but actually closer to 6-foot-4, he played power forward as well as anyone in the history of the NBA, often dominating players half a foot taller. The numbers back him up. Though Barkley brought vitality, attitude and a host of skills to professional basketball, he was viewed as an oddity coming out of college.

Undeterred, Barkley quickly buried that reputation when he began playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. It was not rare to see the neophyte Barkley grab a rebound amongst a crowd, rumble downcourt with the ball and finish with a monster slam. In a half-court offense, he could fill it up from the paint or the perimeter. Charles Barkley talks about meeting Dr. J for the first time and his early years with the Sixers. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. In his three-year college career, Barkley averaged a not-so-spectacular However, he also averaged 9.

Olympic basketball team that summer. He entered the NBA Draft as a junior and was taken by the 76ers with the fifth overall pick. Unfazed, Barkley averaged After several disappointing early-round playoff defeats, the Sixers failed to make the postseason in and Barkley wanted out of the City of Brotherly Love.

The incidents were many, such as the infamous incident during a game against the New Jersey Nets when Barkley, intending to spit on a heckler, accidentally hit a young girl instead.

Foreshadowing his ability to turn negatives into positives, Barkley went on to develop a friendship with the girl and her family. Though known as a tough guy, Barkley had a softer side, as evidenced by the time he offered room and board to Scott Brooks, a young rookie whom had just made the team.

Like the mythical bird for which the city is named, Barkley found new life in Phoenix. Although Barkley struggled with nagging injuries over the next two seasons, he maintained a high level of play. The Suns reached the conference semifinals in and , but lost to the Houston Rockets, the eventual NBA champs. But the chance to grab that elusive championship ring never materialized with the similarly aging superstars Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.

After announcing that his fourth season in Houston would be his last in the NBA, his time on the hardwood ended sooner than expected … and without a ring. On Dec. Before those '93 Finals, Barkley had faced off against the Bulls in the postseason two other times -- in and as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Both times, the Bulls bested the Sixers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Karl Malone was one of the most productive players in NBA history. While his resume is loaded with accolades, the only thing missing is a championship.

Similar to Barkley, Jordan's Bulls had a lot to do with that. As we know, though, the Bulls took care of the Jazz in six games in that series to win their fifth title of the decade. Malone and the Jazz got another crack at the Bulls the following year, but the same outcome occurred as they again lost the Finals in six games. After Jordan retired following his sixth title, Malone stuck around for a while longer, and made one more Finals appearance as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in By that point, however, Malone was on his last legs and unable to help the Lakers seal the deal.

The Pistons ultimately won that Finals in five games. You can't talk about Malone without mentioning his Jazz running mate for nearly two decades. John Stockton was a time All-Star and one of the best point guards in NBA history who stands as the league's all-time leader in both assists 15, and steals 3, And just like his longtime teammate, Stockton's best opportunities to win an NBA title -- with the Jazz in and -- were spoiled by Jordan and Co.

Stockton, who played with the Jazz for the entirety of his career, never made it back to the Finals and retired from the league in Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers got as close as any team did to dethroning the Bulls during their string of success after taking Chicago to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals.

Taking the Bulls to a Game 7 is something that no team that faced off against Chicago in the Finals during the '90s was able to do. The Bulls ultimately prevailed in that series against the Pacers, and in turn, prevented Miller from making his first Finals appearance. For his career, Malone averaged Malone came closest to finally winning a championship three times, in , and in , the former two of which came as a member of the Utah Jazz and the latter as a Laker.

The first two times, Michael Jordan stood in his way, as he did for a few other players coming up on this list, while his final opportunity in Los Angeles fell short at the hands of the Detroit Pistons. But who knows? Had Malone stayed healthy in that Finals matchup against Detroit, perhaps the outcome would have been different.

After all, prior to hurting his knee in Game 3 of the series, Malone had been an important piece for the Lakers, averaging If not Malone, the player who gets thought of first when discussing the best NBA players to never win a ring is Charles Barkley , one of the greatest and most unique big men basketball has ever seen.

The undersized-yet-wide power forward stood around 6-foot-6 while weighing well over pounds, yet he had no trouble scoring down low over taller, longer opponents thanks to his outrageous strength and explosiveness. Couple that with his ball-handling and face-up game and you have the makings of a player who truly was ahead of his time historically. And although Barkley and Co. Barkley would never reach the Finals again in his career, which goes to show just how unfair basketball can be.

Unfortunately, however, Baylor retired nine games into the campaign, his age season, because of knee troubles, a year in which his Los Angeles Lakers would go on to finish the season and be crowned as league champions. Awful luck for Baylor, who was truly a league-shifting, special talent, one who averaged Chris Paul , affectionately known as the Point God by NBA fans, is undoubtedly one of the greatest floor generals the game has ever seen.

Paul already ranks fifth all-time for dimes, with Mark Jackson and Steve Nash well within his sights to surpass soon, while his career averages of And yet, despite his greatness as a lead guard, Paul — who has led the NBA in assists four times and steals five times — has never once reached the Finals over his year career.

He came closest in as a member of the Houston Rockets, getting to the Western Conference Finals and even helping lead his team to a series lead over the dynastic Golden State Warriors of that era, but an ill-timed hamstring injury would knock him out of the final two games of the series, which Houston would go on to lose by a combined 38 points. Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller is one of the greatest sharpshooters the league has ever seen, one who currently sits third all-time in three-pointers made with 2, He was also one of the most clutch late-game shot-makers, coming up huge late in playoff games for Indiana multiple times in his career.

The one problem for Miller as far as winning a title came in the form of having to go through two other all-time 2-guards to win one. Two years later, in the season, Miller and Co. Miller performed fantastically in the Finals, averaging Stockton is the assist king in league history, holding the record for most dimes in a career with 15,, a mark that will likely never be topped — at least for not the foreseeable future.

The second-place player on the list for career assists, Jason Kidd , is 3, helpers behind Stockton. The Hall-of-Fame floor general also holds the record for most steals in a career with 3, takeaways. Stockton enjoyed a nine-year run from through where he averaged Nash, No.