When an NBA player gets old, that gives him license to start chasing rings. If you know you only have a few years left before your body disintegrates, you don’t want to be part of a rebuilding effort. And you definitely don’t want to be part of a mediocre eighth seed team. You want to win championships.
T-Mac tried to do this with the Spurs and it didn’t work. But for David West, and now Andre Miller, it might very well work. And if it doesn’t work this year and the Spurs run into a blue and gold wall in the conference finals, West isn’t so old that he doesn’t get a few more cracks at it.
What isn’t fair is that when people chase rings with the Spurs, it’s usually good players who can help the team. When people chase rings with LeBron’s teams, they’re too old and useless to do anything other than be friends with LeBron.