More so than any other sport, the NBA is a league that's built around promoting and celebrating their individual superstars.
In football, faces are lost behind the helmets. You only see a baseball player when he's up to bat or records an out. But in basketball, you routinely see the faces and mannerisms of every player on the court.
The league has always used the face recognition tactic as a way to further popularize their star players, starting in the '60s with the Bill Russell/Wilt Chamberlain showdowns into the '80s with Bird & Magic to today's game with LeBron and Kobe.
But even though the league's focus often at times appears to be more on the individual than the team, no matter how great or transcending one player he is, he can't win a title by himself. The list of NBA champions in the last 50 years backs that up.
Bill Russell jumped onto a team with five Hall-of-Famers when he entered the league: Tommy Heinsohn, Bill Sharman, Bob Cousy, and Jim Loscutoff.
Bird had his share of Hall-of-Famers flanking him throughout the '80s: Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, and Bill Walton, to name a few.
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Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Eric Felkey
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