Are there less franchise players nowadays in NBA?

[Eja117]

The NBA is in a transition phase.

A large portion of franchise players of the past decade have slowed down.  The young soon to be franchise players haven't fully grabbed the reins yet.

this is also true

[Eja117]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I actually do think there are less franchise players now.   I think the talent is still pretty good. I think there are still tons of players that you can look at them and say "Wow. That player is a great great player that would be an all star in any era".   But there are less franchise players.

To me the term "franchise player" implies a certain amount of leadership.  A certain amount of fearlessness. A certain amount of never quitting.  Nowadays (don't you love sentences that start with "nowadays") the players are franchises. But they aren't franchise players.  Between them and their agents and shoe companies they are out for money and you can keep the respect and awe. They're into rings for the sake of rings and don't care so much how they earn them.  Case in point.....D Howard.  Great talent. Not a franchise player. When you are looking for a franchise and trying to find a place you fit...not a franchise player.   Lebron. .....certainly a franchise, but can never be in the conversation for best player ever now.  He needs about 12 rings to even be considered. A franchise player doesn't do the buddy buddy thing.  MJ was buddy buddy with Barkley and Bird and Magic were, and man these guys loved to beat each other.  They even liked to beat each other in the all-star game and college.

If you're a team hopper you're not a franchise player.  And I'm not sold on players now compared with the past anyway.  Take a loser...John Stockton....total franchise player...never won a ring....is he less of a franchise player than say Allen Iverson?  How about Kyrie Irving?  I just cannot put those guys ahead of him.  Does a franchise player say stuff like "How can I make my teammates better by practicing?"  It was clear Larry Brown had seen and done all sorts of stuff in his day and he just couldn't respect or fathom AI. 

Players now think "How can I best position myself to win and expand my brand".   Players of the past thought "I am going to beat the living snot out of every single guy I see and let them know it".  And that's why I respect the players of the past more and think of them as franchise players more.  Twitter has made an entire generation of players into school girls friending each other and following each other.  I would love it if just one guy didn't do twitter and was like "I took 2000 shots yesterday. When on Earth would I have time for a thing like that?"

Careers are less competitive now making them longer. That means more money. I don't think we'll see a return to the way it was any time soon.

[fitzhickey]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I actually do think there are less franchise players now.   I think the talent is still pretty good. I think there are still tons of players that you can look at them and say "Wow. That player is a great great player that would be an all star in any era".   But there are less franchise players.

To me the term "franchise player" implies a certain amount of leadership.  A certain amount of fearlessness. A certain amount of never quitting.  Nowadays (don't you love sentences that start with "nowadays") the players are franchises. But they aren't franchise players.  Between them and their agents and shoe companies they are out for money and you can keep the respect and awe. They're into rings for the sake of rings and don't care so much how they earn them.  Case in point.....D Howard.  Great talent. Not a franchise player. When you are looking for a franchise and trying to find a place you fit...not a franchise player.   Lebron. .....certainly a franchise, but can never be in the conversation for best player ever now.  He needs about 12 rings to even be considered. A franchise player doesn't do the buddy buddy thing.  MJ was buddy buddy with Barkley and Bird and Magic were, and man these guys loved to beat each other.  They even liked to beat each other in the all-star game and college.

If you're a team hopper you're not a franchise player.  And I'm not sold on players now compared with the past anyway.  Take a loser...John Stockton....total franchise player...never won a ring....is he less of a franchise player than say Allen Iverson?  How about Kyrie Irving?  I just cannot put those guys ahead of him.  Does a franchise player say stuff like "How can I make my teammates better by practicing?"  It was clear Larry Brown had seen and done all sorts of stuff in his day and he just couldn't respect or fathom AI. 

Players now think "How can I best position myself to win and expand my brand".   Players of the past thought "I am going to beat the living snot out of every single guy I see and let them know it".  And that's why I respect the players of the past more and think of them as franchise players more.  Twitter has made an entire generation of players into school girls friending each other and following each other.  I would love it if just one guy didn't do twitter and was like "I took 2000 shots yesterday. When on Earth would I have time for a thing like that?"

Careers are less competitive now making them longer. That means more money. I don't think we'll see a return to the way it was any time soon.

Could not agree more. The point about how back then nobody would team up with anyone was spot on
Bird and Magic certainly weren't going to spend and offseason together trying to improve eachother ala KD and Lebron
TP

[Moranis]

According to Elrod Enchilada there are 13/14 Platinum Medal Superstars in league history. 

1. Jordan
2. Russell
3. Kareem
4. Bird
5. Lebron
6a. Magic
6b. Pettit
8. Robinson
9a. Kobe
9b. Duncan
11. West
12. Chamberlain
13. Cousy
13a. Walton (not enough seasons so he was treated differently)

3 of the 13/14 platinum medal superstars are still active and there have never been more than 5 active at any given time (brief stint where West and Pettit overlapped with Russell, Cousy, and Wilt in the early 60's).  The 80's also had 5 active for a few seasons because of Kareem's longevity, but he was far from the platinum medal superstar when Jordan entered the league (Walton was nothing more than a role player at that time as well).

If you add in Elrod's Gold Medal Superstars you get 5 more active players on the list and Shaq has only recently retired. 

Basically, the league has as many top tier players now as it has at any time in history.  There are just more teams and a lot of the talent is rising while the older guys are still around.  Same thing happens every 10-15 years or so where Wilt/Russell give way to Kareem who gave way to Bird/Magic who gave way to Jordan who gave way to Kobe/Duncan who gave way to Lebron, etc.

[D.o.s.]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I actually do think there are less franchise players now.   I think the talent is still pretty good. I think there are still tons of players that you can look at them and say "Wow. That player is a great great player that would be an all star in any era".   But there are less franchise players.

To me the term "franchise player" implies a certain amount of leadership.  A certain amount of fearlessness. A certain amount of never quitting.  Nowadays (don't you love sentences that start with "nowadays") the players are franchises. But they aren't franchise players.  Between them and their agents and shoe companies they are out for money and you can keep the respect and awe. They're into rings for the sake of rings and don't care so much how they earn them.  Case in point.....D Howard.  Great talent. Not a franchise player. When you are looking for a franchise and trying to find a place you fit...not a franchise player.   Lebron. .....certainly a franchise, but can never be in the conversation for best player ever now.  He needs about 12 rings to even be considered. A franchise player doesn't do the buddy buddy thing.  MJ was buddy buddy with Barkley and Bird and Magic were, and man these guys loved to beat each other.  They even liked to beat each other in the all-star game and college.

If you're a team hopper you're not a franchise player.  And I'm not sold on players now compared with the past anyway.  Take a loser...John Stockton....total franchise player...never won a ring....is he less of a franchise player than say Allen Iverson?  How about Kyrie Irving?  I just cannot put those guys ahead of him.  Does a franchise player say stuff like "How can I make my teammates better by practicing?"  It was clear Larry Brown had seen and done all sorts of stuff in his day and he just couldn't respect or fathom AI. 

Players now think "How can I best position myself to win and expand my brand".   Players of the past thought "I am going to beat the living snot out of every single guy I see and let them know it".  And that's why I respect the players of the past more and think of them as franchise players more.  Twitter has made an entire generation of players into school girls friending each other and following each other.  I would love it if just one guy didn't do twitter and was like "I took 2000 shots yesterday. When on Earth would I have time for a thing like that?"

Careers are less competitive now making them longer. That means more money. I don't think we'll see a return to the way it was any time soon.

Could not agree more. The point about how back then nobody would team up with anyone was spot on
Bird and Magic certainly weren't going to spend and offseason together trying to improve eachother ala KD and Lebron
TP

Or Tim Duncan and Roy Hibbert.


I do think it's interesting that eja puts Charles "I'm not a role model" Barkley up as a franchise player and not Allen "we talkin' 'bout practice" Iverson.