  The Neighbor Joining Algorithm is among the most fundamental algorithmic
results in computational biology. However, its definition and correctness proof
are not straightforward. In particular, ''the question ''what does the NJ
method seek to do?'' has until recently proved somewhat elusive'' [Gascuel \&
Steel, 2006]. While a rigorous mathematical analysis is now available, it is
still considered somewhat hard to follow and its proof tedious at best. In this
work, we present an alternative interpretation of the goal of the Neighbor
Joining algorithm by proving that it chooses to merge the two taxa u and v that
maximize the ''leaf-status'', that is, the sum of distances of all leaves to
the unique u-v-path.
