For fans and pundits interested in keeping Michael Jordan firmly entrenched as the N.B.A.’s greatest modern player over LeBron James, the math is very simple: 6 > 3.

It seems no discussion of those players can avoid the 6 > 3 equation, in which they have decided that Jordan’s 6-0 record in the finals trumps James’s 3-5 record, and that there is no room for any other context or nuance. (The N.B.A. must have missed this memo when they made a silhouette of Jerry West — who was 1-8 in career finals appearances — the league’s logo.)

It is the fascination with championships, and the rings that come with them, that has a 16-team playoff season — the first round of which begins on Saturday — boiling down for many to what it would mean for the various players involved to walk away with the diamond-encrusted validation that comes with a finals triumph.

If Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors win, does that cement them as a dynasty? If they don’t win, does it invalidate the hyperbole about them that’s been thrown around the last three years? What would a fourth ring mean for James? How would it change things for Chris Paul of the Houston Rockets if he finally won a championship in his 13th year in the league?