What Makes an NBA Franchise Player

Today as we celebrate the new era of leadership for our country. I began to think about what qualities make someone a great leader! Honor, respect, trust, and intelligence comes to mind when you consider gifts and skills that make a great leader. Now translate these skills and physical ability when determining what goes into making an NBA Franchise player. A franchise player first and foremost must be an unbelievable talent. However talent along does not make a player a Franchise player. Consider this example. Tracy Mcgrady, has ever physical gift a player could dream about. Height 6'8 , shooting ability, handling, great court version, I can write on and on about Tracy McGrady's physical talents. However Tracy, has never been able to lift his team to greatness. Tracy, is considered a good guy in the NBA by all accounts, but lacks that special gift to be able to lift a franchise to the heights that match his individual talents.

Stephon Marbury, is another player that when you look at the definition of (POINT GUARD) you can argue no one player at his position has all the physical tools available. Height 6'2, unmatched athletic ability for his position, picture perfect jump shot, endless range (can shot from 40 feet easily), and ball handling that can get you from 0-10 in less than 5 seconds. However with all these adjectives, other than winning a PSAL League Championship, getting Georgia Tech to the sweet 16 his freshman year (This was big Georgia Tech failed to make the NCAA Tournament the previous two years before his arrival to campus), and getting the Tmberwolves in the playoffs his first two years. His individual talents never lifted his teams to success. In a worse case than McGrady, many feel Marbury actually makes his teams worse.

Now look at Tim Duncan, most fans know his high skill level. However many seem to take his talents for granted. Ask most fans who their favorite player is and I am sure many will not say Tim Duncan. However since his arrival to San Antonio he has not only won Championships (4) he has made them a franchise that most professional sport teams inspire to be like. Tim Duncan, doesn't jump the highest, score the most points, block the most shots, or grap the most rebounds. However all he does translates into winning. This is a talent that can not be taught, or learned. Other players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Chris Paul, Shaq, Dwayne Wade, Chauney Billips, and Steve Nash have this talent. Also many talented players like Joe Johnson, Baron Davis, Rashad Lewis, Vince Carter, Michael Redd, Carmelo Anthony, and Amare Stoudemire have not yet been able to take their great individual talents and get their teams over the hump. To be a winner a player must be able to not only have great individual talent, but some how be able to have that talent overtake a franchise in every aspect and turn it into something special. This can happen later in a player's career, it took Michael Jordan (7) years to win, put when he finally realized the formula for success he made the Bulls into a dynasty.