I am in no way shape or form saying I don’t enjoy all the rest of the guys that give us highlight after highlight, and their individual greatness is obviously amazing, but there is a very special and exclusive group for players who make others better. It’s not an everyday thing you come across.

If you think about it, individual talent is everywhere. There are thousands of players that can flat out ball, but for me, the players with the unique ability to lift others around them is so rare.

In my opinion, the greatest honor or ability is to make others better within a team sport, where so many pieces have to work cohesively in order to be successful. It’s extraordinary to see a player enabling others to shine and display their full skillset, even when that player may be an inferior talent to them. For me, is it the absolute ultimate in a team environment.

There’s a reason why players like Magic Johnson live long in the memory of not just NBA fans and personalities from the past, but his gift to make others better still resonates with people and players to this very day, despite the unending revolution and transforming of the game from generation to generation.

There’s a reason why people want to play with LeBron James. There’s a reason why Chris Paul is so respected. There’s a reason why the projected upside of Ben Simmons and Lonzo Ball is so high, because they’ve both shown signs of this rare trait. It’s different from others, something that stands out in a world where people are obsessed with players who can score the basketball and do nothing else on the offensive end.

Of course there are different types of greatness, and all are worthy of the title when they excel at a specific aspect of the game, but lifting up others is something that will always be the greatest of all gifts on the NBA hardwood for me personally.