Players' backgrounds: Rich VS Poor

[Flashbeanie]

The players' financial backgrounds are usually more predictive of whether they developed good habits resulting in more fundamentally sound basketball or high basketball IQ. This could also be related to how well they do in school.

Typical 'smart' players:
Grant Hill, Shane Battier ('Dukies' --> highly educated families)
Chris Paul (strong nuclear family)
Pau Gasol, Dirk, Yao, Duncan (most internationals come from better educated families)
Chris Bosh (wanted to major in a difficult major, but pressured not to)
John Stockton, Steve Nash, Ray Allen

Typical 'dumb' players:
Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Stephen Jackson
Amare, Dwight Howard, Leandro Barbosa, Allen Iverson

Based on this sample, one could also surmise that the "raw athletic freak" type players developed bad habits or lack high basketball IQs (or normal IQs in general). The smarter players are generally less athletic.

Players who don't fit into this model:
Kobe, Lebron -- both seem pretty intelligent yet are raw athletic freaks
Garnett -- when this guy gave his draft day interview he sounded so stupid, but he has very high basketball IQ.
MJ

So if you are a raw athletic freak, then whether you come from a rich/stable or poor background might predict your success. If you are not a raw athletic freak, the only way you could make it in the NBA would be to have superior fundamentals, and that absolutely correlates with having a sufficient amount of money.

[dj ys]

No better examples than Stacey Augmon or Michael Finley.
Both whisper quiet 99/100.
Yet brothers from the middle of nowhere Mississipi act like their neighborhood was New jack City, and they're nino Brown. Fools.
Finley had 2 bodies in HS when he had a Carefree Curl, but you don't see him ever step out of line or seek attention in the NBA.

I know about the curl lmao. Where did u hear Fin dog caught a body? Or 2 at that?

[Micku]

Didn't LeBron grow up in a poor neighborhood? And doesn't he have a book out that talks a little bit about where he grow up and stuff?

And what did Chris Bosh wanted to major in? Some science subject like biology?

[purple32gold]

Didn't LeBron grow up in a poor neighborhood? And doesn't he have a book out that talks a little bit about where he grow up and stuff?

And what did Chris Bosh wanted to major in? Some science subject like biology?

what does his major at g.tech have to do with his upbringing?