Today, I’m appealing to fans of every other team sport to explain something that baseball fans already know. Something that is so basic yet incomprehensible to many fans and, worst of all, sports media talking heads. Ready? Team championships are won by teams, not individuals.
Baseball fans understand this because in baseball, the impact of one player is smaller than in any other sport. Many of baseball’s all-time greats — Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb and Ken Griffey Jr. just to name a few — never won a World Series. And, guess what? No one ever questions the greatness of any of those players. In fact, many would tell you that Bonds is the greatest player of all time, and those who disagree certainly don’t do so because of his lack of a World Series.
A World Series, like any team sport championship, is a team accomplishment. It is earned by every member of the winning team. Some players have a bigger impact than others, but that doesn’t mean that those players are the sole reason for their team’s success.
I’m thinking about this now because of what happened in the Stanley Cup Final, during which the Edmonton Oilers fell one game short in their bid to overcome a 3-0 deficit against the Florida Panthers. The Oilers’ best player is Connor McDavid, the best athlete on the planet right now. McDavid’s 2024 postseason was so good that he won this year’s Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the most valuable player in the playoffs, without winning the Stanley Cup.
For some perspective, McDavid’s career 1.52 points per game is the third-best mark in NHL history. At just 27 years old, he already has more career scoring titles than the combined totals of Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Patrick Kane — who are all at least eight years older than McDavid and who many would consider the three best players of the 2010s. He’s been even better in the playoffs, putting up 1.58 points per game. He had 42 points in 25 games this postseason en route to the Conn Smythe. That doesn’t sound like a guy who disappears when it counts.
Yet, there is this insatiable urge to define McDavid by his lack of a Stanley Cup. Basketball legend Charles Barkley argued that McDavid shouldn’t be compared to Wayne Gretzky without winning a Cup. The New York Post wrote that “Connor McDavid can cement legacy as all-time great if Oilers finish off historic comeback,” as if he wasn’t already an all-time great. One columnist even wrote a piece entitled, “Connor McDavid didn’t choke, exactly, but he’s still not a winner.”
McDavid is just the most recent example of this phenomenon, and it’s not confined to hockey. The idea that teams aren’t wholly defined by their best player is a simple concept that baseball fans understand well, but seemingly no one else can grasp. The result is that even outstanding playoff performers can be labeled “chokers” when their team doesn’t win. Case in point: Aaron Rodgers has a higher playoff passer rating than Tom Brady. You’d never know that given the way Rodgers has been constantly bashed for losing playoff games.
Not for one minute am I saying that team success doesn’t matter. But, when we evaluate the greatness of individuals who play team sports, all sportswriters should take a page out of baseball’s book and focus on their individual resumes. Playoff performance can, and should, be included, but team championships shouldn’t even be a part of the conversation. One player can’t do it all, no matter how talented they are.
