I was thinking today of the Lebron and JR Smith meme, which you can see here. JR Smith held onto the ball instead of putting it back in because he thought they were winning, not tied.
I don’t remember JR Smith, but he did win a championship with Lebron either that year or another year. He started and played in 77 games and was pretty consequential. 18 points per game, I think?
Here is his relevance to this thread. At the very end of his career, he got picked up by the Lakers and was only in 6 regular season games.
He played 10 games in the playoffs and, get this, won a second championship(again with Lebron!). He was a lot less important this time, but he filled a slot and played in games.
He played 16 games, all 16 that he was on the team for. He did NOT sit out the whole year and then hop in. He was picked up for the team July!
Can anyone think of an athlete that was picked-up/signed with less games in a season and won a championship?
There was a Cavs player who joined with even less time and won the 2016 championship. I can’t recall his name, but LeBron specifically mentioned him during his speech in the Cleveland championship parade and said something to the effect of, “This guy is the luckiest, we picked up his ass just a few weeks ago and now he has a ring.”
I’m at work and can’t do more research right now. I’m sure that in the NFL, there have been quite a few players who were added to a Super Bowl winning team’s roster only just a few days or weeks before the Super Bowl and got a ring.
A few baseball players have been called up at the very end of the season and then played in the playoffs. Dylan Lee for the Braves in 2021 is one. Adalberto Mondesi actually made his pro debut in the World Series, I believe.
If you are looking for players who contributed the least and still got a ring, MLB is full of those too. Guys that got demoted or traded but their team still went on to wi the title often still get rings.
ETA: Terrence Gore has 3 World Series rings. He has played in 11 postseason games with 2 plate appearances. 2021 was his masterpiece - 0 regular season games, 1 post-season appearance (pinch runner), WS ring.
This doesn’t beat Gore, but one of Cleveland’s current (and former) catchers Austin Hedges fits the bill for the thread
On August 1, 2023, Hedges was traded to the Texas Rangers in exchange for international bonus pool money. Hedges did not appear at all in the postseason until Game 1 of the 2023 World Series, in which he struck out against Paul Sewald in his only at-bat to send the game into extra innings. The Rangers eventually won the game and went on to win the World Series in five games.
For baseball, a player needs to be on the 40-man roster (or on the 60 day IL) by noon on August 31 to be eligible to play in the post-season. So teams that pick guys up off of waivers in September cannot put them on their post-season roster. There have been many August 31 trades to World Series winners.
Mondesi is in fact in the only player in MLB history to make his debut in a postseason game and then win the World Series.
Many NHL players have debuted in the playoffs - it’s much more common, as the roster rules are different - and some have won a ring, including Esa Tikkanen of the Oilers.
How about Antonio Brown joining the Tampa Bay Bucs after 10+ years in the league, and winning the Super Bowl? Lucky because he had lost his mind by that point.
Absolutely correct. He was placed on the Royals 2015 postseason roster after not having been with the big-league team at all during the regular season. He did not play in the ALDS against the Astros, and also did not play in the ALCS against the Blue Jays. He appeared as a pinch-hitter in Game 3 of the World Series and struck out in his only plate appearance in the series, which was won by the Royals in five games.
I think he would win the award for the answer to the OP. He wasn’t on the roster at any time during the regular season. Doubtful if that’s ever happened in the NFL or the NBA.
Of course, there are instances from other sports played in the world. I presume that they count?
Marlion Pickett made his debut for Richmond in the AFL 2019 Grand Final vs GW Giants which Richmond won.
This was the 6th instance in VFL/AFL history of a player making their debut in the Grand Final, but the first for 67 years and the first to win a premiership on debut since 1926.
Of note was Bill James, also with Richmond whose only VFL/AFL game was their 1920 grand final win.
Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens was called up late in 1971 and started 6 regular season games. He then played in 20 playoff games, won the Stanley Cup, and was named MVP of the playoffs (Conn Smyth trophy). The next season, he won rookie of the year award (Calder trophy).
I guess it is not so much lucky, as really good. But it deserves mentioning.
Brown caught 45 passes for 483 yards in only eight regular season games after joining the Bucs. He didn’t do much in the playoffs (8 catches, 81 yards and two scores) but that was because he misses 1.5 games with an injury.
He was a significant part of the team in 2020 and definitely didn’t just show up to collect a ring. In fact, one of the things that stands out about the 2020 Bucs is how many players made significant contributions, especially on offense.
In 1986 Kevin Elster was 22 years old and made his big league debut with the Mets on September 2. He then found himself inserted into several very high pressure World Series games a month later.
I remember Vin Scully making a point of the difficult position he was put in. “How would you like to be Kevin Elster?!” I’m unable to imagine myself in such a situation at that age and not just curling up in a fetal position.
Reminds me of Brandon Finnegan, who played collegiately for TCU and pitched in the College World Series in May of 2014. He was then drafted by the Royals and called up in September. He appeared in 7 regular season games and then had 4 post-season appearances during the Royals 2014 World Series run, which ended with a Game 7 loss to the Giants.
A candidate might be Bob Cerv who came up with the Yanks in 1951 and was on teams that won in 1951-1954, 1956, 1961-62 plus on the 1955 team that lost. If I recall correctly he got rings for 6 World Series, 1951 was just a cup of coffee year. He also roomed with Maris & Mantle in 1961. He had only 31 At Bats in all those World Series.
So he got either 6 or 7 world Series rings and never started for the Yanks. He did have 2 years as a starter for KC A’s, 1958 being his great year.
I used to watch a parody sports analysis show on the Comedy Channel. One of the characters (played by, I wanna say Jon Hayman, later “Bubble Boy” on Seinfeld) was a third-string catcher who benefitted from a series of late-season trades, and as a result, had like seven World Series rings.
