5 Greatest team leaders in NBA history
Chris Paul’s leadership is a hot topic in basketball circles after leading the Phoenix Suns to the NBA Finals and taking Game 1 from the Milwaukee Bucks. Afterwards, teammate Devin Booker was quoted as saying that Paul was the “greatest leader to play this game.”
But is he correct? If not, will CP3 crack the top five greatest all-time leaders in NBA history?
Great NBA players who are great leaders
Not every great NBA player is a great leader but the greatest leaders are winners. Leadership expert John Maxwell defined leadership in this way:
"Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less."
To rank the five greatest leaders in the NBA, we’ll have to look at the influence they had on their teams and what happened when they played on the roster that was handed to them. It’s difficult to place Chris Paul at the top of the leadership pole without winning a championship.
With that said, here are our five greatest leaders in NBA history.
#5 Tim Duncan
Given his personal performance and how many times he was able to lead his team to a championship from his younger days to his twilight years, Tim Duncan is among the greatest leaders in the NBA.
The San Antonio Spurs forward learned from David Robinson, who handed Duncan the leadership baton even though the Spurs were still technically his team. Robinson recognized Duncan as being better than him and gave him an example to follow in the years to come.
Later, Duncan formed a bond with Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, and let them outshine him when injuries and Father Time had caught up to him. All three of them also let Kawhi Leonard slowly transition into The Man in San Antonio, albeit briefly, when all three of them were already close to retirement.
The result? There were five championships in 19 years with the Spurs, forming a dynasty that spanned 15 years (1999 to 2014). In the end, San Antonio never missed the postseason throughout Duncan’s career.
#4 LeBron James
Anywhere that LeBron James goes, the teams that he joined would win more games than the season before and the teams he left ended up missing the playoffs. James knows how to win and how to squeeze everything out of the roster that he’s presented for them to compete for a championship.
Without another All-Star on the roster as a teammate, King James brought down the 2004 NBA champion Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference in six games during the 2006-07 season before getting swept by the Spurs in the Finals.
Additionally, that Cavs team is considered by many as one of the weakest teams to make it to the championship round, but there they were because of the leadership abilities of a 22-year-old.
He was in the NBA Finals for eight straight years (2011 to 2018) despite playing for two different teams, the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, and winning three rings along the way.
Last year, after winning the title with the LA Lakers, James became the first player in league history to win an NBA Finals MVP for three different franchises and to lead each one to a championship. His four Finals MVPs are second only to Michael Jordan’s six, winning the last one at 34 years old yet still able to lead a team to a title.