Post#1284 » by zzaj » Thu Dec 12, 2024 12:36 am
Warning: philosophical post
Wasn't sure where to put it, so I'll put it here:
Just had a long conversation with an old buddy named Darren Morningstar from my hometown who played in the NBA for a season. Great to catch up...
One of the things that was a bit of an eye-opener that he said that has been sticking with me all day, is surrounding just how difficult it is to adjust to the NBA. And it corroborates with conversations I've had in the past with Terrell Brandon. To paraphrase what D said:
"...If you are close to your family, want to have a great close relationship with your wife and kids, and basically want to have some sense of "normal" life, you'll never make it in the NBA. Especially now with tons of kids coming out at 19 and the team expectations over summertime, in the very best set of circumstances you give up 15 years of your prime young life--your whole 20s and hopefully some of your 30s, to live out of a suitcase for the majority of a year, in boring hotel rooms, with basically one month off. No close relationships, other than teammates (that you actually can't get away from if you honestly don't like). Also, nobody talks about just how much soft tissue damage you do to your body being that active with no recovery time for 15 years. Most of the players I still keep in touch with who had longer careers than me, have massive quality of life health issues. If you see a player struggling to play well or hitting a wall, or showing lack improvement, it's my opinion it's the adjustment thing. It's the hardest thing I ever had to do and 95% of players really have a hard time with it. Most will never reach their full potential because of how hard the adjustment to that job is. Most find out that they don't love basketball THAT much..."
Anyway, got me thinking about Scoot, Sharpe and some other Blazers...granted they get generational wealth in order to sacrifice that time, but still. It's not for everyone...
