I love it when posters say "I could make it to the league"

[DoctorX]

I'm sure that the average poster on here could never get a full NBA contract. But I do think that the average guy who's at least 6'3-6'4 and an okay athlete could play professionally in a foreign league or even make the G league if they spent their entire life training, as most players who make the NBA do.

I was about the same level as one of my friends in high school freshman year, but then he started taking basketball seriously and trained year round through his senior year, and he ended up being a four year D1 starter. It always made me wonder if I could have made it to at least be good enough to play in college, but unfortunately I was way too lazy back then to actually put in the work.

I knew this one guy I worked with way back in '07. This guy had played basketball with PJ Tucker in high school. He played college basketball at an HBCU. I don't want to reveal his real name but I will just call him John. We would play basketball together after work and this guy at 6'4 was super athletic and could throw down ridiculous dunks such as windmills easily. I remember him telling me at the time that he would have made it to the league like PJ had done briefly had he worked on his jump shot. He said that PJ put in hours working on his shot while he didn't care to do so and always wondered how his life would have changed had he made the effort to work on his shot. The funny thing John revealed to me around that time was PJ was playing ball in Europe and trying to recruit him to comedown there to play. John said that he didn't get great offers to play in Europe and didn't want to waste his time there and told PJ he was wasting his life away playing ball in Europe and that he wasn't going to make it back to the NBA.

[Big J]

Put me in the corner on Golden State and I'm hitting 40% of my 3's. Maybe YOU couldn't score a point, but I've been able to hit a wide open jump shot since 3rd grade.

Defense is another story.

[TheFinishSniper]

I'd smoke VanVleet bro. He might be 9 inches taller than me but I got 80 pounds on him. I'm built different.

You're 5'1''?

If he is I feel sorry for him. Unless he is 13 years old...

[Duke4life831]

Say what you want about the bottom of the NBA players in the league, they would still smoke anyone on this board or just thinking they could score even a single point in an actual NBA game. Everytime I see someone on this board claims I am reminded of videos like this:

Watch on YouTube

Every time?

Can you provide at least one recent example of this on here that isnt clearly a joke?

I remember at least two instances where posters here proclaimed they could at the very least get a few points if given some minutes. As to searching, why would I do that? This was a light hearted thread meant to entertain a little. If you are not one of those people who think because they played college basketball that they could win against the bottom quarter of the NBA well then I do not know why you got sensitive about this. Or do you feel "slighted" as a moderator that there might be posters here who might harbor such ideas? There are so many terrible takes on GB I find it funny that you find this particularly "egregious".
Also every time does not imply anything more that it happens, not that it happens "every time". Is English your native tongue?

Sensitive about this? Easy man like your post mine was also a light hearted jab. Where do I say I feel slighted or that I found this thread "egregious"? Also not a mod anymore but okay haha.

Yes English is my first language. When I see someone say, "Every time I see ..." I assume that means you have seen that thing multiple times. And myself like many others are just pointing out we cant recall any posts of people on here claiming they can make it in the NBA.

[The_Hater]

I think the reason you don’t see many people make this claim is because NBA players are tall and clearly both very athletic and in great shape. Plus pickup ball is everywhere so you have every opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. So when somebody says ‘I could of played.....’ they just get laughed at by most.

Now I live in Canada and it’s a completely different world with hockey. Many NHL players just look like ordinary Joe’s off the ice so I’ve had at least 100 guys say to me that they could have made the NHL followed by ‘but’ and a a story. It happened to me just last week when I was visiting a client, and some skinny 5’8” guy around 40 years old just announced that he could have made the NHL to me out of the blue (we all know this type). And then volunteered that he got into the booze so that’s why he didn’t make it. So I asked him where he played his junior hockey and it was a league about 3 tiers below the NHL. Teenagers playing in that league simply aren’t making the NHL or any pro league going forward. It’s glorified rec hockey where the stands are only filled with girlfriends and the occasional parent. Booze or no booze.

[scrabbarista]

I'm sure that the average poster on here could never get a full NBA contract. But I do think that the average guy who's at least 6'3-6'4 and an okay athlete could play professionally in a foreign league or even make the G league if they spent their entire life training, as most players who make the NBA do.

I was about the same level as one of my friends in high school freshman year, but then he started taking basketball seriously and trained year round through his senior year, and he ended up being a four year D1 starter. It always made me wonder if I could have made it to at least be good enough to play in college, but unfortunately I was way too lazy back then to actually put in the work.

I knew this one guy I worked with way back in '07. This guy had played basketball with PJ Tucker in high school. He played college basketball at an HBCU. I don't want to reveal his real name but I will just call him John. We would play basketball together after work and this guy at 6'4 was super athletic and could throw down ridiculous dunks such as windmills easily. I remember him telling me at the time that he would have made it to the league like PJ had done briefly had he worked on his jump shot. He said that PJ put in hours working on his shot while he didn't care to do so and always wondered how his life would have changed had he made the effort to work on his shot. The funny thing John revealed to me around that time was PJ was playing ball in Europe and trying to recruit him to comedown there to play. John said that he didn't get great offers to play in Europe and didn't want to waste his time there and told PJ he was wasting his life away playing ball in Europe and that he wasn't going to make it back to the NBA.

I saw one of the best novelists in the world give a reading once, and someone from the audience asked him what it took to make it as a writer. He said, "A lot of talent, discipline, and luck - and there's only one of those you can control."

[CavaliersFTW]

I think Dunning Kreuger effect is big with topics like this. People with high confidence are probably early on the scale diving into playing basketball. People with a bit of experience trying to advance themselves in the sport and put in a lot of work for any length of time pretty well understand where they stand. How many of us play chess on here. I'm sure nobody here thinks they'd be able to hold their own for even 1 round let alone a few with some grand masters. NBA players are this level, but in basketball - it isn't even just the physical game there's nothing you could do that they haven't seen and practiced against, witness, or thought about 10 thousand times as their full-time job (with exceptional world class talent as a prerequisite) for years. If anyone was good enough to beat a grand master in chess it isn't going to be some part timer or chess club player with overinflated confidence anymore than a rec or former collegiate could go toe to toe with an NBA player.

[ayyayyron]

"I could make it to the league," says the 5'8, 160lb poster with a 28" vertical and no stamina

[Capn'O]

I think Dunning Kreuger effect is big with topics like this. People with high confidence are probably early on the scale diving into playing basketball. People with a bit of experience trying to advance themselves in the sport and put in a lot of work for any length of time pretty well understand where they stand. How many of us play chess on here. I'm sure nobody here thinks they'd be able to hold their own for even 1 round let alone a few with some grand masters. NBA players are this level, but in basketball - it isn't even just the physical game there's nothing you could do that they haven't seen and practiced against, witness, or thought about 10 thousand times as their full-time job (with exceptional world class talent as a prerequisite) for years. If anyone was good enough to beat a grand master in chess it isn't going to be some part timer or chess club player with overinflated confidence anymore than a rec or former collegiate could go toe to toe with an NBA player.

About 10 years ago I played a lot of chess online. I got myself up to about a 1500-1800 ranking (for whatever that was worth on the app) depending on recent opponents. Not bad. So a guy sent me an invite who had something like a 2200 ranking - aka low level master. I accepted just to see what playing somebody of that caliber was like. The entire game was like a noose slowly closing in around my king and taking out every piece in its path along the way. It was utter and complete annihilation. I didn't even understand what had happened to me let alone how to stop it.

I imagine playing a professional of any league would have been an even greater humiliating experience even at my "basketball peak."

[og15]

Put me in the corner on Golden State and I'm hitting 40% of my 3's. Maybe YOU couldn't score a point, but I've been able to hit a wide open jump shot since 3rd grade.

Defense is another story.

40%. There are actually many people that could score a basket playing against professional level players, but if you think you're going to hit 40%, unless you are joking, that's laughable. They aren't just going to watch you shoot, people are still going to close out.

[BigShaq34]

i can confidently say that my current self would make the NBA in the 1940's.

[dhsilv2]

I think Dunning Kreuger effect is big with topics like this. People with high confidence are probably early on the scale diving into playing basketball. People with a bit of experience trying to advance themselves in the sport and put in a lot of work for any length of time pretty well understand where they stand. How many of us play chess on here. I'm sure nobody here thinks they'd be able to hold their own for even 1 round let alone a few with some grand masters. NBA players are this level, but in basketball - it isn't even just the physical game there's nothing you could do that they haven't seen and practiced against, witness, or thought about 10 thousand times as their full-time job (with exceptional world class talent as a prerequisite) for years. If anyone was good enough to beat a grand master in chess it isn't going to be some part timer or chess club player with overinflated confidence anymore than a rec or former collegiate could go toe to toe with an NBA player.

About 10 years ago I played a lot of chess online. I got myself up to about a 1500-1800 ranking (for whatever that was worth on the app) depending on recent opponents. Not bad. So a guy sent me an invite who had something like a 2200 ranking - aka low level master. I accepted just to see what playing somebody of that caliber was like. The entire game was like a noose slowly closing in around my king and taking out every piece in its path along the way. It was utter and complete annihilation. I didn't even understand what had happened to me let alone how to stop it.

I imagine playing a professional of any league would have been an even greater humiliating experience even at my "basketball peak."

One just inaccuracy in the opening and you're just done in a game against someone at that level. And well kinda the same in basketball BEFORE we factor in the physical gifts that allow nba level athletes to win even when they make a gross mistake.

[dhsilv2]

I'm sure that the average poster on here could never get a full NBA contract. But I do think that the average guy who's at least 6'3-6'4 and an okay athlete could play professionally in a foreign league or even make the G league if they spent their entire life training, as most players who make the NBA do.

I was about the same level as one of my friends in high school freshman year, but then he started taking basketball seriously and trained year round through his senior year, and he ended up being a four year D1 starter. It always made me wonder if I could have made it to at least be good enough to play in college, but unfortunately I was way too lazy back then to actually put in the work.

So the "average" guy who's already in the top less than 1% in male height...

Even then if you have smaller hands, shorter legs (longer torso), small feet, lack coordination, or just have the wrong build you're out. The amount of change someone's body goes through from freshman year to college is DRASTIC. A lot of people might have been at the level of some pro's at 13 but by 18 no matter what they did couldn't have kept up. Now you start getting into the 6'7 and up...I'd start to see more of a chance in a majority might have that chance but then again...by that height more and more guys are less and less coordinated.

Now good enough for sub D1 college? Now we're opening the flood gates.

[Myth]

I'd smoke VanVleet bro. He might be 9 inches taller than me but I got 80 pounds on him. I'm built different.

You're 5'1''?

If he is I feel sorry for him. Unless he is 13 years old...

Still feel sorry for him, because regardless of his age, he is still claiming to be 277lb as such a short height.

[LikeABosh]

whose saying that

Yeah, forum members tend to be more self-deprecating when talking about their athletic ability

[scrabbarista]

I'm sure that the average poster on here could never get a full NBA contract. But I do think that the average guy who's at least 6'3-6'4 and an okay athlete could play professionally in a foreign league or even make the G league if they spent their entire life training, as most players who make the NBA do.

I was about the same level as one of my friends in high school freshman year, but then he started taking basketball seriously and trained year round through his senior year, and he ended up being a four year D1 starter. It always made me wonder if I could have made it to at least be good enough to play in college, but unfortunately I was way too lazy back then to actually put in the work.

So the "average" guy who's already in the top less than 1% in male height...

Even then if you have smaller hands, shorter legs (longer torso), small feet, lack coordination, or just have the wrong build you're out. The amount of change someone's body goes through from freshman year to college is DRASTIC. A lot of people might have been at the level of some pro's at 13 but by 18 no matter what they did couldn't have kept up. Now you start getting into the 6'7 and up...I'd start to see more of a chance in a majority might have that chance but then again...by that height more and more guys are less and less coordinated.

Now good enough for sub D1 college? Now we're opening the flood gates.

To be fair, he did say "6'3''-6'4'', okay athlete, spent their entire life training, and "a foreign" league. That's a lot of qualifiers.

Could an athletic, 6'4'' guy who spent his entire life practicing make a roster in the pro league in Taiwan? Yes, probably. But he'd have to have the good fortune not to suffer major injuries, the good fortune to have opportunity and access to places where he could practice, and the good fortune to live in a stable enough family/social environment that would allow him to get in all that practice time. Not to mention the significant qualifier of being that passionate/disciplined in the first place.

Also, there's a lot of room for interpretation in the phrase "okay athlete" in his post. Like, does that mean "okay" among actual amateur athletes (at that size)? That's how I took it, as opposed to "okay" among the general population at that size. I also took "okay" to mean "slightly above average," which is maybe not fair, lol. Sigh. Anyway. I've spent enough time on this site today. Peace out, friends.

[madmaxmedia]

I mean statistically there might be like one guy on here somewhere that could

Lol I’m pretty sure Durant is on every basketball site monitoring every comment about himself so you’re probably right...

Maybe LAvar has a burner account here too to talk about his kids...

[madmaxmedia]

'I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me.' - Brian 'White Mamba' Scalabrine

No, that's Brian 'Vanilla Godzilla' Scalabrine...

[madmaxmedia]

Do we really need thread on this? Its like inviting flat earther to science debate, you don't need to even recognize this level of stupidity.

100%. But the video was really entertaining, as are the stories people have posted in this thread so it's all good.

[madmaxmedia]

Someone replied to me on NBA reddit the other day about how they could have been an elite D1 college player and at least gone pro in Europe but they chose to go into business instead he's happy he did cause now he's making 6 figures a year and hooks up with instagram models regularly.

A lot to unpack there