Fisher is not the Lord of Kobe’s Rings Thanks to Lebron

Derek Fisher felt a lot better about his chances of getting his sixth NBA Championship ring one week ago, but then again Kobe probably feels a lot better about it now.

Of course Fisher has been a face of the Lakers franchise over his seventeen year NBA career. Other than short stints in Golden State and Utah, he had spent almost all of his career with the Lakers before being traded to Houston at the trade deadline this season. He reached a buyout agreement with Houston, and signed with Oklahoma City.

Fisher was upset that Lakers management thought the veteran guard would be disgruntled at playing a back up role—which is exactly what he is doing now with OKC. Fisher said at the time

"I think the door was shut pretty hard in terms of how [the trade] happened. Obviously, the team felt they needed to move on. I have as well."

As the consummate professional, and head of the NBA Players Association, he has been about nothing but winning and team his whole career, so he took it personally that management took that stance.

And to Fisher’s credit he didn’t Adam Morrison his way into any of those rings either, as he was a major contributor no matter how many tenths of a second were on the clock.

Fisher looked poised to get a sixth NBA title this season with the Thunder. It was a closer series than the 4 games to 1 indicated, but the Thunder took down Fisher’s old team, stormed by the Spurs 4-2, and Fisher stood 4 victories away from beating Kobe to his coveted number of rings—6—the same as MJ and Scotty.

For some reason however no one seems to be talking about matching Big Shot Rob for his seven rings with three teams.

Its been well documented the friends and teammates that Fisher and Kobe have been since they were both began their careers with the Lakers as rookies. And they have won 5 NBA titles together.

So, surely Kobe would be happy for Fisher if he won a sixth ring—publicly at least.

But Kobe would certainly take it personally, and feel embarrassed that Fisher beat him to number six. Kobe is the standard for championships in the post MJ era, and Fisher has been there all the way to help get him there. If Fisher managed to win one without Kobe, that would be a slap in the face.

No one would honestly say Derek Fisher is better than Kobe Bryant, but it could knock Kobe down off his perch a little bit. Shaq got a ring without Kobe, but Kobe got two rings without Shaq. But if Fisher had a ring without Kobe, and not the other way around, Kobe’s legacy could get knocked down half a notch.

And while Lebron and The Heat saved Kobe from this reality, the competition for best player of this era did just get a little closer too.