Who Deserved the CHIP? - Sorting the Batmans from the Robins and Wonder Twins
I have an obsession with player legacy and Hall of Fame criteria. I think the Hall of Fame should only include players who were in some way the best. The easiest way to be recognized as the best is to win a CHIP:
CHIP = The Clear Best Player on a Championship Winning Team
A player who wins a CHIP has cemented their legacy. To win a CHIP, you need enough help from teammates to win it all, but if one of those teammates is too good, you split the credit. There are no split CHIPs. You need to be the Batman to the Robin, not one of the Wonder Twins. The CHIP goes to the guy driving the Batmobile.
Methodology
How do you determine the best player on the championship team? Winning a championship means winning enough games in the regular season to get to the playoffs, get an advantageous playoff seed, advance through the crucible of 3 playoff rounds, and then finish the job in the finals. The best player is the one who contributed most to that overall effort.
And how do you determine that? Awards such as MVP, Finals MVP, or placement on an All-NBA team combine performance with popularity and narrative. So we will need to turn to trusty all-in-one impact measures: flawed, but impartial, and easy to get off of Basketball Reference! Here’s our recipe:
- Win Shares plus VORP
- Playoffs count double
That’s it. Win Shares and VORP are cumulative, rather than per-minute measures, so they measure a player's overall contribution to winning, combining quality and durability. This accounts for a player’s contribution to the slog of the regular season, with extra weight put on playoff performance. It's difficult to fluke into a high score on this. Here’s Shai in 2024-25:
2024-25 Shai
RSWS + RSVORP + 2*(POWS + POVORP)
16.7 + 8.9 + 2*(3.9 + 2.2) = 37.80
Now that we have a way of measuring who the best player is, how do we determine if that player is *clearly* the best? The clear best player has a total score significantly greater than his best teammate. How significantly? It has been suggested that player value tiers roughly track a Fibonacci sequence (ratio φ = 1.618), so Tier Three might be a 3, Tier Two a 5, and Tier One an 8.
A player with impact metrics 1/φ (62%) of another’s is an archetypal Robin in the Batman/Robin metaphor. But where’s the line? Let’s say half way between those two:
Robin threshold: (1 + 1/φ) / 2 = 0.809 = 81%
A player with impact metrics below 81% of their teammates’ is a Robin, making their superior teammate the Batman. 81% or above, the players’ impacts are similar enough to make them Wonder Twins.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Shai | 37.80 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| JDub | 18.60 | 0.49 | Robin |
In the example of the 2024-25 Thunder, J-Dub’s score is only 49% that of Shai’s, a clear Robin performance. This makes Shai the Batman, earning him the CHIP.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | Leonard | 19.60 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Duncan | 18.70 | 0.95 | Wonder Twin |
The 2013-14 Spurs had two relatively equal contributors, with Duncan easily clearing the Robin Threshold with 95%. Kawhi and Duncan were Wonder Twins here, splitting credit for the title, and neither getting a CHIP.
Season by Season
Ok, let’s go through each season this century and see who was worthy of a CHIP:
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-01 | Shaq | 32.20 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Kobe | 26.60 | 0.83 | Wonder Twin | |
| 2001-02 | Shaq | 30.70 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Kobe | 25.70 | 0.84 | Wonder Twin | |
| 2002-03 | Duncan | 42.20 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Robinson | 14.00 | 0.33 | Robin | |
| Ginobili | 11.80 | 0.28 | ||
| Parker | 11.40 | 0.27 | ||
| 2003-04 | Billups | 25.40 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Ben Wallace | 25.10 | 0.99 | Wonder Twin | |
| Hamilton | 20.00 | 0.79 | ||
| 2004-05 | Ginobili | 28.70 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Duncan | 26.80 | 0.93 | Wonder Twin |
After Shaq played Batman in 1999-2000, the millennium opens with Kobe narrowly joining Shaq for 2 seasons of Wonder Twins. After Wonder Twinning with David Robinson 4 years earlier, Duncan puts in the ultimate Batman performance (Robinson Robin Factor = 0.33) in 2002-03. The Pistons win with an ensemble cast in 2003-04, then Ginobili’s performance rises to Duncan’s level the following year.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-06 | Wade | 30.90 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| O’Neal | 12.50 | 0.40 | Robin | |
| 2006-07 | Duncan | 29.20 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Ginobili | 23.30 | 0.80 | Robin | |
| 2007-08 | Garnett | 31.30 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Pierce | 26.20 | 0.84 | Wonder Twin | |
| Allen | 21.80 | 0.70 | ||
| 2008-09 | Kobe | 33.20 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Gasol | 30.90 | 0.93 | Wonder Twin | |
| 2009-10 | Gasol | 27.40 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Kobe | 25.20 | 0.92 | Wonder Twin |
Wade earns a CHIP in 2005-06, and Duncan is back in the Batmobile in 2006-07. Timberwolves-era Garnett would have been un-twinnable, but slightly post peak he needs Paul Pierce’s help to bring the Celtics a title. Missing out on the CHIP with Shaq a few years earlier, this time he teams up with Pau Gasol for another 2 seasons of Wonder Twins titles. Kobe gets all of the credit, but the impact metrics say that Pau was his equal.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-11 | Nowitzki | 26.00 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Kidd | 16.10 | 0.62 | Robin | |
| 2011-12 | LeBron | 39.90 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Wade | 21.30 | 0.53 | Robin | |
| 2012-13 | LeBron | 45.60 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Wade | 19.00 | 0.42 | Robin | |
| Bosh | 16.90 | 0.37 | ||
| 2013-14 | Leonard | 19.60 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Duncan | 18.70 | 0.95 | Wonder Twin | |
| 2014-15 | Curry | 35.80 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Green | 19.80 | 0.55 | Robin | |
| Thompson | 18.00 | 0.50 |
After being doubted his whole career, Dirk is knighted with a CHIP, securing his legacy. The Heatles were more like Destiny’s child, with LeBron in the Beyoncé slot, two CHIPs for King James. A new Batman emerges in Curry, standing head and shoulders above his awesome group of teammates.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | LeBron | 35.90 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Love | 17.20 | 0.48 | Robin | |
| Kyrie | 16.80 | 0.47 | ||
| 2016-17 | Curry | 28.90 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| Durant | 27.10 | 0.94 | Wonder Twin | |
| 2017-18 | Durant | 27.90 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Curry | 19.90 | 0.71 | Robin | |
| 2018-19 | Kawhi | 30.00 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Siakam | 18.90 | 0.63 | Robin | |
| 2019-20 | Davis | 29.70 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| LeBron | 29.30 | 0.99 | Wonder Twin |
LeBron counters with his own Batman performance to beat the Warriors, his 3rd CHIP. The Warriors win two more, with Curry and Durant Wonder Twinning the first, and Durant carrying a less than healthy Curry on the second. It’s hard to give Durant the CHIP after joining an already mighty Warriors team, but the model is the model. Former Spurs Wonder Twin Kawhi changes teams to get his first CHIP with the Raptors. Then the bubble Lakers win in the ultimate Wonder Twins performance, even if LeBron got most of the credit.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | Giannis | 28.00 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Holiday | 15.60 | 0.56 | Robin | |
| 2021-22 | Curry | 22.60 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Looney | 13.10 | 0.58 | Robin | |
| 2022-23 | Jokic | 40.30 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| Gordon | 15.70 | 0.39 | Robin | |
| Murray | 15.70 | 0.39 | Robin | |
| 2023-24 | Tatum | 22.70 | 1.00 | Wonder Twin |
| White | 20.40 | 0.90 | Wonder Twin | |
| Brown | 12.90 | 0.57 | ||
| 2024-25 | Shai | 37.80 | 1.00 | Batman 🪙 |
| JDub | 18.60 | 0.49 | Robin |
Three Batman seasons from Greek Freak, Chef Curry (his second), and The Joker. Then Brown wins Finals MVP for the Celtics, but the impact metrics say that Tatum and White were the main engines behind the Celtics’ title. OKC wins it all with a great young team, but Shai is the clear best player by a mile.
| Season | Player | Score | Robin Factor | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | Towns | 23.00 | 1.00 | Wonder Triplet |
| Brunson | 20.50 | 0.89 | Wonder Triplet | |
| Anunoby | 19.60 | 0.85 | Wonder Triplet |
I developed this before these playoffs, and I was pretty pleased with it! For the most part, it passed the smell test over 25 reps. This result is the most challenging, with the model making Wonder Triplets of Towns, Brunson, and Anunoby. But it’s hard to not see Brunson as the best player, engine, leader, and psychological backbone of the Knicks. I suppose the team was built around his strengths and weaknesses, even if he was the main character, his teammates played huge roles. But 45 points to Brunson in the final game, and 2 for Towns? Yikes.
Cashing in the CHIPS
If we count up the CHIPS, this is what we end up with:
| Player | CHIPS |
|---|---|
| LeBron | 🪙🪙🪙 |
| Duncan | 🪙🪙 |
| Curry | 🪙🪙 |
| Wade | 🪙 |
| Dirk | 🪙 |
| Durant | 🪙 |
| Kawhi | 🪙 |
| Giannis | 🪙 |
| Jokic | 🪙 |
| Shai | 🪙 |
This is basketball royalty, with these players having an unimpeachable case (except for maybe Durant?!) for greatness at the highest level. The three multi-CHIP guys occupy a stratum above the rest, the biggest winners in the game.
Some great players missed getting a CHIP, either by being a Wonder Twin (e.g. Garnett, Ginobili, Tatum), or never being on a championship team (eg. Paul, Harden, Nash). The toughest omissions are Kobe and Brunson, who didn’t get the analytic nod, but meant so much to their massive markets, earning their immortality by being the right guy in the right place at the right time.
Posted Jul 18, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC