1. Rick Carlisle
Rick collected a championship ring as a member of the Celtics bench in 1986 and was on the roster in their near misses in 1985 and 1987. Look at the key words there, "bench" and "roster". Rick played in just 38 of 82 games in 1985 and 42 of 82 in 1987. He did manage 77 games including a start at the end of the season but that was only for about 9 minutes a game. So does only playing in 80 games out of 164 offset a ring and becoming one of the most successful coaches of this generation? You be the judge.
2. Greg Kite
Kite was around the same time as Carlisle only he collected TWO rings and was around a little bit longer. He played just 35 of 82 games his rookie year (1984) and 55 of 82 the following. He did gain notoriety by being the third string center behind Robert Parish and Bill Walton in 1986 which led to 64 out of 82 games. The following year with Walton out with injury, Kite played nearly a full schedule with 74 games played. He played in just 13 games before being released in 1988. His last bit of legacy, he was the starting center for the 1992 Orlando Magic. That alone prompted the Magic to draft a fella by the name of Shaquille O'Neal to replace him the following year. So, does 2 championship rings off-set being pretty much a 2nd-3rd string bench warmer for 4 1/2 years? You decide.
3. Brian Scalabrine
Scal with a mean looking scowl on the bench....as usual
He's now a cult figure in Boston but originally he was a high priced free agent that was supposed to fill the void left by Antoine Walker at the power forward position.......Hey! Get off the floor! I know its funny but its not THAT funny! Yessire Bob, THIS GUY was supposed to be the answer to Antoine Walker and the mentor to Al Jefferson going into the 2006 season. He did manage to get into 71 games but averaged TWO POINT NINE points a game. In other words he was being paid 2.5 million dollars to score a single basket per game. You know how many former players all fat and out of shape would love to waddle onto the court and hit a single basket for 2.5 million these days? Well Scal did and he was neither fat or out of shape. The following year when Tankapalooza 1 was going on he played in just 57 games. The following year when the new big 3 reigned supreme Scal played in just 49 games, getting dropped on the depth chart in favor of old veteran PJ Brown and rookie Glen "Big Baby" Davis. He barely played at all in 2009 even after Kevin Garnett was lost for the season, just 39 games but did make it to the playoffs. 2010 was the final year for Scal as he ended his Celtics career on the Forum floor in Game 7 of the NBA Finals after just 52 games during the regular season. So, out of the possible 410 games played between 2006-10 he got in just 264. The final 3 years included 2 trips to the NBA Finals. So consider Scal the Greg Kite of his era. Does the championship offset being a bench warmer with a 2.5 million dollar contract? I don't think so.
Now to be fair, its not like these guys were hurt (well sometimes they were). They were perfectly capable of playing in the games they were active for. Still, their suckage was so bad that coaches KC Jones and Doc Rivers decided it was best not to play them. So that's why I have to give the nod to Brian Scalabrine myself. He was paid so much to do so little. At least Kite was never supposed to be the next Robert Parish and was never paid anywhere close, same with Carlisle. For Scal to become a cult hero in the same fashion as Sam Horn, for the money he was paid, I'd say that's bawful enough for this award. So there's your 3 finalists.....whoever gets the most votes will get the award named after him.
Carlisle, Kite or Scalabrine? Hmmmmm
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