You know what I've been thinking lately? I see how winning a championship springboards certain secondary players into superstar status and wonder if it would've happened without the championship and primary star.

For instance...

Wade a a good player until Shaq came to Miami and won a championship. He went from a star guard to this sick monster. You could say the same about Kobe too.

I never thought Tony Parker would be the player he is today and I think Duncan/Spurs has a lot to do with it.

Rondo seems to be benefiting in the same way.

Would these players be the same players they are today without the championship? Would their confidence be as strong if opposing teams had guarded them harder while developing into the allstar they are now?

Wade was already a star, he was just overlooked because of the other people in his draft class. Remember how everyone was all over Lebron and Anthony like they were supposed to be the next Bird/Magic rivalry. Anyone who watched Wade and Carmelo in college knew Wade had more game. The finals was just a springboard to name recognition since Wade carried the team, not Shaq.

Parker and Rondo are more interesting cases though. I don't think winning a championship made them better players as much as just getting playoff experience and playing with some other really talented players did. Just like a lot of the players who were on the US team this year have gotten better and had their best seasons. They learned from being around other top level players.

What you are overlooking is that all three players you reference as evidence (Wade, Parker and Rondo) were all young when they won that first title. I am sure a championship experience helped.....but it is probably secondary to the natural evolution of a player.

And anyone who watched the Heat in Wade's rookie year knew he was special well before Shaq showed up (and please stop overrating Shaq on the 2006 Heat title sqaud.....he was BARELY their 2nd best player.....that was a team that succeeded because they had one star (Wade) and a bunch of other guys who could step up and contribute on any given night....some nights it was Shaq, some it was Toine or Posey or J-Will or Zo or Haslem.....well you get the picture....anyone who thinks that Shaq "got" them that title was not watching the same games I was.)

Referees, Referees, Referees...

Todays NBA is so warped you'd never win a champ without someone to get you the star calls..

Period..

It's in-arguable.

The league refuses to release the ref assignments for each playoff game until the day of the game. I'm not the tin-foil hat type, but i'm sure an earlier leak of that info would cause for some hilarious betting line swings.

You could make a living taking the road team and the points if you knew Joey Crawford was in town for the evening.

It's definitely true that the major NBA story of Wade's rookie year was - Wow looking how f ing good Dwayne Wade is

I personally attribute most of Wade's success to being one of Charles Barkley's fave 5

Nice.

I don't think so.

You don't need championships to evolve into a great player.

See K. Garnett, J Kidd, C Paul, D Williams, A Iverson, K Malone

All those guys significantly improved throught their first 4 years in the league and none of them sniffed a title in that time frame.

Rajon Rondo and Tony Parker likely would have gone through a similar evolution with or without the titles. Wade was already a monster. As someone else said, they just happened to be in their first couple years in the league when they won the titles, then happened to continue to improve as players.