We all wanted to be in the NBA. Why didnt we work for it?

[Kblaze8855]

I'm now like 6'3" (in shoes), had great quickness, good jumping ability and pretty much a lot that you can ask from a PG.
From ballhandling to court vision to some IQ.
I however lacked in shooting and some more IQ but I never really worked on that.
I would always prefer to play some streetball instead of working on my shooting.

Same **** with me. I developed talent early. Had my ball with me everywhere I went.



^
Took it on vacations down south. Literally everywhere. Thats the ball George Gervin signed for me and he took a jumper with it before a Bulls game in 86. Kept it forever. I still have it now for my son to bounce around. Played all day every day I could. If raining I threw my siblings out of the kitchen and worked on handle. And I was good then.

In church leagues dominating. And im talking Chicago leagues with hundreds and hundreds of kids. Id just count my numbers in my head and I was probably getting 30/20 a game in games that would end only 60-50 or something. Bigger than everyone as you can see:



Parents thought it wasnt fair so my dad let me play wit hthe bigger kids. I was like 11 playing with an beating 14-15 yearolds. Best on our team even being younger than everyone.

Few years later I got to this point....



^
15

I could dunk at 14 but nobody believed me because it was months after my first dunk before I got another one down clean. Id basically lay it in and hang on the rim but shortly into 15 I could put it off the backboard and dunk. Sloppy windmill. 360s. I was about 6'2''.

And around then I stopped working. I always worked out to be better than my friends. Once I was I didnt have real goals. My best friend and I got into football and thats where I got serious a bit. but honestly I think I did it because I was a natural on the field. I could be the best defensive player on the team(and I was the best on every team from 15-18) just off instinct and talent.

I didnt have to work at it. Id have to work to develop skills in basketball. I just wanted to have fun playing street ball like you mentioned. I was happy to play pickup and catch some lobs and dunk on people to show off for some girls or whatever.

And right then the world caught up to me. I went from the best no matter who I played to just being pretty good. Another year or two I was just athletic as hell and average. Had some good games. Even at 6'3'' I had a 17/16/8 block game. Guarded whoever the other teams best player was.

But football was where I shined and I just let basketball fall behind.

Pisses me off.

[ClutchCityReturns]

Bill Bradley in college had to make about 145 shots in a row from various places before hed let himself go home. And that was after a day of practice. Hit 25 in a row from a number of spots. 15 in a row on moving shots. Bunch of hooks. If he missed the shot on 144 hed go back to zero and start over.

No way I'm buying this one, unless the shots were all short range...hooks and bank shots, etc. Even then it's hard to believe. Just as an example, Ray Allen plays a game called "Plus 1, Minus 2" where you start at 0 and shoot elbow shots until you get to 10 points (win) or -10 (lose). You get 1 point for a make and lose 2 for a miss. If NBA players hit 100+ shots in a row, then a guy like Ray Allen playing "Plus 1, Minus 2" would be like Shaq playing horse from directly under the rim. Ridiculously easy, and essentially pointless. Basically, I don't believe anybody makes 145 shots in a row until I see it. I think it's a big fish story.

[El Barto]

I always knew that I'd be too short and not athletic enough to join even the high school basketball team, but everyone always told me that I could hit fade away jumpers like nothing and had decent range...but I was just too slow for everything else. When high school started I was about to try out for the football team but realized that my mom wouldn't have enough money for the equipment and everything, so I decided to just workout and practice on my own. I regreted not joining in my freshman or sophomore year.

Then my mom died at the end of my sophomore year and I lost all motivation to do anything in sports...been in a funk ever since, until now. But I haven't touched a basketball or football in 3 years.

Like what some of you guys said, you need to have the want to do it and heart to play the game or excel to the next level.

[bdreason]

Better chance of becoming a doctor, and more helpful to society.


You people who say working hard can get you into the NBA are crazy. It takes god-given talents, hard work, and luck.

Steve Kerr is an athelete. I could practice my whole life shooting 500 shots a day and would never be as good at shooting as Steve Kerr (my coordination isn't the best).

I'm a decent athelete. I train MMA 5 days a week, but there is no way I could have ever made the NBA with what I was born with. NO WAY.



ps- forgot to mention I'm 6'4" (175), played B-ball from 4th grade up through my 2nd year of college.

[Kblaze8855]

No way I'm buying this one, unless the shots were all short range...hooks and bank shots, etc. Even then it's hard to believe. Just as an example, Ray Allen plays a game called "Plus 1, Minus 2" where you start at 0 and shoot elbow shots until you get to 10 points (win) or -10 (lose). You get 1 point for a make and lose 2 for a miss. If NBA players hit 100+ shots in a row, then a guy like Ray Allen playing "Plus 1, Minus 2" would be like Shaq playing horse from directly under the rim. Ridiculously easy, and essentially pointless. Basically, I don't believe anybody makes 145 shots in a row until I see it. I think it's a big fish story.

Its not a rumor. Its from his own mouth today. I made this topic watching a CBS special that came on just before the Bulls game. Was them counting down the 10 greatest shooters in college history and talking about how they got that way. That was Bradleys drill. His teamamtes and coach were on there too. Think they all got together before the show and decided exactly what to lie about and how?

[Kblaze8855]

You people who say working hard can get you into the NBA are crazy. It takes god-given talents, hard work, and luck.

Steve Kerr is an athelete. I could practice my whole life shooting 500 shots a day and would never be as good at shooting as Steve Kerr (my coordination isn't the best).

Its easier to say its impossible than to take a few thousand jumpers a day and find out.

Plenty of people have built themselves into machines through sheer will. Guysl ike Herschel Walker

I've read that one thing that you had to do to build yourself up was an incredible amount of push-ups and wind sprints. I mean, give us an idea of the kinds of things you had to do to get to where you wanted to be.

Herschel Walker: I didn't grow up with a lot of money. My high school didn't have a lot of money to afford a lot of the expensive weights. You know all this stuff. They used that as an excuse. I started doing push-ups and sit-ups during commercials as I was watching TV. And started doing about, sometimes 2,000 push-ups, 3,000 sit-ups, 1500 pull-ups, 1000 dips, or different things like that. I started creating different hand positions for all that, and I learned that could work you out.

He was a fat kid losing races to his big sister. And he built himself into a godly running back.

Some of it is the potential your genes give you. But nobody would look at a fat kid and assume he could be this:




You go all out...true dedication...never know where you end up.

But 99.9% of people will assume they cant reach the goal so they wont even try.

I bet you arent the least athletic guy who ever made the NBA.

Im not calling it all a work issue. Just saying most never find out because they wont work to begin with.

[ClutchCityReturns]

Its not a rumor. Its from his own mouth today. I made this topic watching a CBS special that came on just before the Bulls game. Was them counting down the 10 greatest shooters in college history and talking about how they got that way. That was Bradleys drill. His teamamtes and coach were on there too. Think they all got together before the show and decided exactly what to lie about and how?

I will assume it was exaggerated, but not entirely false. That's what I'm saying.

[Kblaze8855]

Were talking about one of the best shooters ever doing a drill he did every day in the 60s. No 3 point line. No reason for him to be taking long shots. Id like to see a guy like Arenas do that drill. I wouldnt bet against him finishing.

[OneWay]

Same **** with me. I developed talent early. Had my ball with me everywhere I went.



^
Took it on vacations down south. Literally everywhere. Thats the ball George Gervin signed for me and he took a jumper with it before a Bulls game in 86. Kept it forever. I still have it now for my son to bounce around. Played all day every day I could. If raining I threw my siblings out of the kitchen and worked on handle. And I was good then.

In church leagues dominating. And im talking Chicago leagues with hundreds and hundreds of kids. Id just count my numbers in my head and I was probably getting 30/20 a game in games that would end only 60-50 or something. Bigger than everyone as you can see:



Parents thought it wasnt fair so my dad let me play wit hthe bigger kids. I was like 11 playing with an beating 14-15 yearolds. Best on our team even being younger than everyone.

Few years later I got to this point....



^
15

I could dunk at 14 but nobody believed me because it was months after my first dunk before I got another one down clean. Id basically lay it in and hang on the rim but shortly into 15 I could put it off the backboard and dunk. Sloppy windmill. 360s. I was about 6'2''.

And around then I stopped working. I always worked out to be better than my friends. Once I was I didnt have real goals. My best friend and I got into football and thats where I got serious a bit. but honestly I think I did it because I was a natural on the field. I could be the best defensive player on the team(and I was the best on every team from 15-18) just off instinct and talent.

I didnt have to work at it. Id have to work to develop skills in basketball. I just wanted to have fun playing street ball like you mentioned. I was happy to play pickup and catch some lobs and dunk on people to show off for some girls or whatever.

And right then the world caught up to me. I went from the best no matter who I played to just being pretty good. Another year or two I was just athletic as hell and average. Had some good games. Even at 6'3'' I had a 17/16/8 block game. Guarded whoever the other teams best player was.

But football was where I shined and I just let basketball fall behind.

Pisses me off.

Yeah, I feel you on that one as well.

From the looks of it, I'm not the athlete that you are (not as big) but there's less competition in Europe so I easily could've made it.

What pisses me off is that I"ll never know how good I could've been.
When my 2 teammates had tryouts for big teams I was posting here because I wasn't even going to practices.

What pisses me off is that it's a do or die situation at that teen age and your whole mind completely changes 10 times a day.

You don't know what you want. You don't know what's the smart thing to do. You know nothing. And you think you know everything.

I think at that age you either need to be really mature or have some guidance. I basically never accepted the guidance from anyone and never had respect for authority people.

It's funny because there was a coach who saw a great deal of talent in me and you could sense that he liked me more than anyone else but what did I do? Nothing. Slacked in practices. Didn't even go to practices.

Even at young age you need to have some sense of professionalism. I didn't have it.

F it. Time blows by. Other kids become good. Sooner than you know you start losing your God given gifts and you turn into an average person.

It's so ironic and kind of sad when you think about it...but you can never know what would've happened if you were smart and in hindsight things look so much easier which only adds to the irony of the situation.

Nothing you can do really. It's what it is now.

A typical Al Bundy story. Lotta folks have had great gifts but wasted it.
We're not the only ones.

However, you need to learn from your mistakes. That's my inspiration I guess. Not to let anything like that happen to me again. Not to be so unprofessional about anything.

Is it the lack of love or lack of maturity? Or lack of anything else? Hard to say. Really hard.

[Samurai Swoosh]

Great thread. You also forgot how Pistol's father used to have him dribble out the passanger seat window of a moving car to get better at his handle.

[geeWiz15]

how many NBA players do you think have actually maximized their potential?

[Kblaze8855]

JJ Reddick. Steve Kerr. Nash maybe. Spud Webb was about as good as he could be. Same for Muggsy. But I guess they could always be better shooters.

[Carbine]

Bird was probably the best at maximizing everything he had.

[Samurai Swoosh]

So in conclusion, white guys usually work the hardest?!?! j/k

[Kblaze8855]

More accurate people with limited physical ability usually have to work hardest. So mostly the slow and short.