It's a tag many people have worn before they were great: "The best to have never won a championship."

A young Michael Jordan was that guy in the late 1980s when he kept running into the Detroit Pistons every May. It was an albatross around Phil Mickelson's neck before he finally broke through at Augusta National in 2004. Same goes for John Elway before he ended his great career with back-to-back Super Bowl championships.

It begs the question: How important is winning a championship to a players' legacy?

Earlier this month, Kobe Bryant appeared to solidify his by leading a Los Angeles Lakers team that didn't have Shaquille O'Neal on the roster to an NBA title. It was Bryant's fourth championship, but the first won without O'Neal.

That title came a few days after Sidney Crosby, one of the National Hockey League's top guns, helped the Pittsburg Penguins win a Stanley Cup title. Crosby has the title monkey off his back early in his career.

Both players will obviously be helped by those rings, but I don't think a championship is the end-all be-all sign of greatness in team sports.

Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ryne Sandberg were fabulous players during their years with the Chicago Cubs. Just because they never won a World Series championship, it shouldn't lessen any of their legacies. It was their bad luck to be with an organization that hasn't won much more than a door prize in the last century or so.

Jason Caffey has two more NBA title rings than Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing combined. That doesn't mean he's a better player than either one of those sure-fire Hall of Famers. And to that point, just because Robert Horry had seven NBA rings to his credit that doesn't mean he trumps Jordan, who has six.

Individual sports like golf and tennis are a different animal though. Each players' success rides on their own shoulders. There are no teammates around to share the blame with. For as great as Roger Federer has been during his career, he gave his legacy some legitimacy by capturing the French Open and completing the career grand slam.

On the PGA Tour, a player can't be considered great until he wins a major championship.

And I'm not saying that by winning one major title you are instantly a great. Just like in the music world, there are plenty of one-hit wonders out there. When you consider a golfer's body of work, he needs to have a major in there. And most of the good ones do.

Kenny Perry (13 wins) is the active player with the most PGA Tour wins that doesn't have a major title included. And if would have only held on at Augusta in April, who knows how we'd look at him today.

-- dobrien@whig.com/221-3365