RealGM

It astounds me how many guys at, near or over 7' come into the league and fail. I'm not talking about stringbean genetic mistakes (see link) but huge, well-proportioned types with athletic ability.
I always think, damn if i had that body I would be a monster. Which is hubris on my part, I know. But stil it baffles me.

7' tall, with decent athleticism, coolege and pro coaches and trainers who will do anything to help you succeed, and still we get Kwame Brown, Saere Sene, etc

How come?

Most people share your same thoughts, I would settle for being 6'10".

The fact that so many people fail is really a testament to how important the mental aspect of the game is. If the player's work ethic is piss poor, or they spend more time at the buffet than the weight room, it is unlikely they'll stick in the league as more than a career backup.

Bad hands, uncoordinated, bad work ethic, don't like basket ball, like food too much, like drugs too much. I think those are the main reasons players with that size fail.

Also, bigs wanting to be the next MJ* instead of learning post skills.

Amaretotheline wrote:Most people share your same thoughts, I would settle for being 6'10".

The fact that so many people fail is really a testament to how important the mental aspect of the game is. If the player's work ethic is piss poor, or they spend more time at the buffet than the weight room, it is unlikely they'll stick in the league as more than a career backup.

Bad hands, uncoordinated, bad work ethic, don't like basket ball, like food too much, like drugs too much. I think those are the main reasons players with that size fail.

Also, bigs wanting to be the next MJ* instead of learning post skills.

Agree. And then you look at a guy like Kurt Thomas and it's impressive. Can't stand him, but Juwan Howard comes to mind as well.

Speaking of bigs that DO improve season to season, did anyone catch LMA last night? He's been looking good.

Also with 7+ footers you bring in the health/injury concerns. It's been proven time and again that being that tall puts too much pressure on your frame with the demands of the NBA game. That's not always the case but that's where some of the failures come in (Yao being the best example).

Miklo wrote:Also with 7+ footers you bring in the health/injury concerns. It's been proven time and again that being that tall puts too much pressure on your frame with the demands of the NBA game. That's not always the case but that's where some of the failures come in (Yao being the best example).

Oh surely - Yao, Oden, Bowie, Walton - lots of strain on the knees and feet

But I meant more the kind of fail that is Kwame ... he would seem to have everything he needs. Can't think of other examples but every year there are 7-footers who get taken late or in the 2nd, and despite good health and decent athleticism, they just .... suck and are out of the league in short order.

I think that's areal good point about post skills. A lot of these guys have it fairly easy in HS and early leagues, where they just have so much size they blow everyone away, and think they're MJ until they hit college, where *everyone* was a high school star. Then the NBA is all guys who were the stars of *their* college team. And that's the end of the ride


a guy like Jabbar had great coaches, good competition and was taught to play his position from early, early on.

My high school sucked. I'm 6'3" and was the obvious choice for Center. Over and over. If i wanted to pursue basketball after high school, i'd be screwed, because I wasn't put in a position to learn skills needed for someone my size.

I remember going to a New York Knicks camp in my 8th grade summer, where I was played at position, with people that could actually play, and I made the camp "All-Star" team. Sucks that I never had the environment to harness skills needed to play past high school.

That's why i quit after freshman year, hah. Plus all the people on the team were idiots and i couldn't stand them.

^ I know how you feel. Being 6'1" Center as fast as the guards and not being allowed to shoot outside or get into a face-up game.

And here I thought it was just me...how about this: I was 5'10" and starting as a 4. I still have good interior post moves for all the good it does me. I played in a small league in high-school. Plenty of height, but no weight. I went 175-180 at 5' 10, with a big butt. The funny thing is, after our PG rotated out, I slid over to PG, a little like Boris Diaw, now that I think about it, but with more heart

I'm like a 6'2" Rodman with a Barkley offensive game.
I'm not even joking. People get mad that they cant score when i'm guarding them.

I'm like a 6'1" Sun Yue.

I'm like a 7'3" Spud Webb.

I only choose to ball with middle-schoolers, so that I can live out my dreams of being the next great big man. It's not that hard to score in the post against a 10 year old.

Although sometimes it's harder than I'd like to admit.

I'm like a 5'10" white boy who grew up watching Pistol, Earl and JWest. I still have the jumper but at 54 my wheels are suspect and the spinning, crowd-pleasing drives to the the hoop are no longer so crowd-pleasing or teammate pleasing, either. It's sad because i know what to do but my body just says, "F - You."

I still love the damn game, though. I suppose I've always loved the Ernie D kind of guys because they are all work and no great natural speed or athleticism. Duds is my boy for that reason - imagine if he had hops?

lol, I was put at center at 6'2 as well for a season. At first I sucked SO bad because I had always played like guard/forward...like I screwed up on a lot of fundamentals like totally blowing rebounds on airball shots. I ended up improving a lot at shot blocking and a little at rebounding but it's frustrating as hell having to play a different game than you want to.

I'm 6'0 now, and taller than most people in my year, I know I'm not going to grow much more, so I keep practising all my guard skill when I'm alone. But when I play for my school, I usually play center or PF. When I do develop more into a guard as I get older, it's a luxury to still have a decent post game to turn to.

Da_Reel_Kboy wrote:I'm 6'0 now, and taller than most people in my year, I know I'm not going to grow much more, so I keep practising all my guard skill when I'm alone. But when I play for my school, I usually play center or PF. When I do develop more into a guard as I get older, it's a luxury to still have a decent post game to turn to.

I bet you the shorter guys are annoyed you're not playing more like a C ay?

lilfishi22 wrote:

Da_Reel_Kboy wrote:I'm 6'0 now, and taller than most people in my year, I know I'm not going to grow much more, so I keep practising all my guard skill when I'm alone. But when I play for my school, I usually play center or PF. When I do develop more into a guard as I get older, it's a luxury to still have a decent post game to turn to.

I bet you the shorter guys are annoyed you're not playing more like a C ay?

Nono. I'm not that selfish. When I play pickup and stuff, unless there is a taller guy who actually likes playing center, I'm the one usually playing center/power forward.