Brandon Jennings: "It’s easier to be KD, Bron, and etc, You gone need a a lot of training trying be Steph Curry though"

[kingr]

Well yeah shorter less athletic guys have to work harder and be a lot more skilled to succeed. However, people can shoot/practice 24/7 and still not be as good of a shooter as Steph. That's God's given ability + hard work, not only hard work.

[KrAzY3]

You think the 71 year old isn't a genetic freak too? Shaq's still 7 feet all and a freak despite being too old to play in the league.

He might be some sort of a freak but it clearly demonstrates it isn't an athletic skill and it probably isn't one that can be inherited. I mean did his son break his record? Was his father the second best? He did it at 71, with severe physical degradation, showing it's much more skill than attributable to athletic ability.

What the fact that a 71 year old doctor could be the best of all time teaches us is just how far off of the skill is from typical athletic ability. There are older men that are the best doctors in the world, the best gem cutters, the best free throw shooters, there is no 70 year old dude that's going to win any Olympic track and field event. There's no 70 year old guy that's going to make the NBA.

People are getting skill confused with athletic ability for some reason. A 70 year old can maintain his skill, he can't maintain his athletic ability. Skill is not a genetic trait, athletic ability is.

[Haldi]

Free throws aren't new...he's the best free throw shooter ever. It isn't like he's just some 3 point guy...he's the freakest freak we've ever seen as a shooter. Not 3 point shooter, but shooter.

He is 90.8% career FT shooter, which is incredible, but not something we havent seen. Nando De Colo is 93.8 career FT shooter in Euroleague, and his worse shooting season in like 8 years of playing there was him shooting 90.8%, in you exclude this season so far where hes 87%.

This free throw stuff is so silly. It's all skill!

"Tom Amberry was an American podiatrist who is best known for holding the Guinness world record for most consecutive free throws made, having made 2,750 of them in a row in a span of 12 hours over the course of November 15, 1993 at the age of 71."

A 71 year old podiatrist made 2,750 in a row! What are these guys smoking that they are saying only elite athletes can do this. An old dude with a different profession made thousands in a row. It is not a genetic trait only elite athletes have! Do they realize how many physical attributes are lost at the age of 71? You can still make thousands in a row if you are capable of repeating the same step over and over.

Exactly, ALL skills in life are like this… for everyone!! Doesn’t matter if you want to be the best at pool, foosball, throwing a ball exactly 20 feet in the air and catching it or any basketball skills.. its just reps and more reps. George Constanza from Seinfeld or that old guy from the example above could never be in the NBA for obvious reasons, but if they have the insane commitment to being that amazing at shooting free throws, either can do it ( one did ), anyone can.

[eminence]

Dumbest **** i've heard in a while. Acting as if KD doesn't live and breath basketball everyday. To be that good takes countless hours put in everyday. Hate it when scrubs downplay greatness by acting as if it's all unexplained talent. Lebron and KD are that good because they put the work in.

The 1 in a billion combo of height and coordination and size doesn't hurt....but neither does Curry's maybe greatest eye hand coordination ever hurt...while also being a top 10 or so percenter in height on the planet earth.

*Among basketball players.

Theres tons of table tennis players who are levels above Steph in hand eye coordination.

[SerialChiller]

Ridiculous statement...All of those players he named have amazing genetic traits to begin with.

[dhsilv2]

You think the 71 year old isn't a genetic freak too? Shaq's still 7 feet all and a freak despite being too old to play in the league.

He might be some sort of a freak but it clearly demonstrates it isn't an athletic skill and it probably isn't one that can be inherited. I mean did his son break his record? Was his father the second best? He did it at 71, with severe physical degradation, showing it's much more skill than attributable to athletic ability.

What the fact that a 71 year old doctor could be the best of all time teaches us is just how far off of the skill is from typical athletic ability. There are older men that are the best doctors in the world, the best gem cutters, the best free throw shooters, there is no 70 year old dude that's going to win any Olympic track and field event. There's no 70 year old guy that's going to make the NBA.

People are getting skill confused with athletic ability for some reason. A 70 year old can maintain his skill, he can't maintain his athletic ability. Skill is not a genetic trait, athletic ability is.

Is height not part of being athletic to your view? Because it is to most of us. Just like being coordinated is associated with being athletic.

[dhsilv2]

Dumbest **** i've heard in a while. Acting as if KD doesn't live and breath basketball everyday. To be that good takes countless hours put in everyday. Hate it when scrubs downplay greatness by acting as if it's all unexplained talent. Lebron and KD are that good because they put the work in.

The 1 in a billion combo of height and coordination and size doesn't hurt....but neither does Curry's maybe greatest eye hand coordination ever hurt...while also being a top 10 or so percenter in height on the planet earth.

*Among basketball players.

Theres tons of table tennis players who are levels above Steph in hand eye coordination.

That's fair...likely some video game guys too.

[GunnerWRX]

Not too long ago GMs were saying "you can't teach height", and 7-footers who didn't play much basketball were drafted in the lottery.

Steph Curry has made people forget about it, and some people here actually argue that becoming Steph Curry at his size in the NBA, isn't one bit harder than becoming KD/LeBron with their size advantage.

Steph Curry has really changed the game.

[KrAzY3]

Is height not part of being athletic to your view?

I do think height is a genetic trait, but no I do not think it's an actual athletic ability. In this case we are comparing really mental to physical traits I suppose. In the case of physical traits you can then break those into two categories, one set of physical traits are more permanent. Like if you have big feet you always have big feet. The other set, things like strength, speed, agility, even eyesight, those will degrade over time.

Then you have skills, and skills are something that in some cases actually become greater with age. Like I said some of the best in the world as certain things are actually quite advanced in age. It's because skill isn't nearly as reliant on physical traits, specifically genetic traits and are things that you can hone over time to the point that you outpace the loss in physical abilities. You can't expect a 70 year old man to dunk a basketball, you can expect him to be able to operate on your heart. One is ability, the other is skill.

[LukaTheGOAT]

Dumbest **** i've heard in a while. Acting as if KD doesn't live and breath basketball everyday. To be that good takes countless hours put in everyday. Hate it when scrubs downplay greatness by acting as if it's all unexplained talent. Lebron and KD are that good because they put the work in.

The 1 in a billion combo of height and coordination and size doesn't hurt....but neither does Curry's maybe greatest eye hand coordination ever hurt...while also being a top 10 or so percenter in height on the planet earth.

*Among basketball players.

Theres tons of table tennis players who are levels above Steph in hand eye coordination.

How would you be able to measure hand-eye coordination across sports?

[LukaTheGOAT]

Dumbest **** i've heard in a while. Acting as if KD doesn't live and breath basketball everyday. To be that good takes countless hours put in everyday. Hate it when scrubs downplay greatness by acting as if it's all unexplained talent. Lebron and KD are that good because they put the work in.

The 1 in a billion combo of height and coordination and size doesn't hurt....but neither does Curry's maybe greatest eye hand coordination ever hurt...while also being a top 10 or so percenter in height on the planet earth.

*Among basketball players.

Theres tons of table tennis players who are levels above Steph in hand eye coordination.

How would you be able to measure hand-eye coordination across sports? Like, Steph is orders of magnitude better as a shooter than anyone in NBA history, so if how good of a shooter would he be if he had the hand-eye coordination of a tennis player in your example (maybe give him Federer's abilities)? I am legit curious is all.

[The411]

Curry works harder than anyone else. This has been discussed by many of his peers on video. That being said he is immensely talented and it doesn't mean that Lebron or KD don't work insanely hard.

[SerialChiller]

I don't buy that Curry works harder than plenty of guys have and do..Jordan, Kobe, Wade, Lebron, KD, just to name a few off the top of my head that its pretty much impossible to work harder than they did. He just has a very special skill set, it's genetic. Look and his Dad and his Bro as well. All the other named players had special traits too but in a different athletic way.

[eminence]

The 1 in a billion combo of height and coordination and size doesn't hurt....but neither does Curry's maybe greatest eye hand coordination ever hurt...while also being a top 10 or so percenter in height on the planet earth.

*Among basketball players.

Theres tons of table tennis players who are levels above Steph in hand eye coordination.

How would you be able to measure hand-eye coordination across sports? Like, Steph is orders of magnitude better as a shooter than anyone in NBA history, so if how good of a shooter would he be if he had the hand-eye coordination of a tennis player in your example (maybe give him Federer's abilities)? I am legit curious is all.

I'd disagree that Curry is that much better than his basketball peers. I think he does have some that measure up (Nash/Miller probably my top two after him).

But I'm not sure. Note, I said *table tennis players*, regular tennis players in my estimation require about the same overall balanced athleticism as basketball players (obviously basketball players are a bit more varied due to different positions, but tennis players and NBA guards/wings have fairly similar athletic profiles). Table tennis players are almost exclusively just hand-eye coordination/reaction time outliers. They don't have to be particularly athletic in almost any other way.

I'm not sure if it's just the more specialized training or more a gift that separates them, but I imagine an already highly coordinated basketball player like Steph who could focus exclusively on his shooting/coordination would be like those FT shooting guys who can hit 1000s in a row. Obviously he can't train it nearly as exclusively due to needing to do other things on the court (playing defense, getting open, handling the ball, etc).

[LukaTheGOAT]

*Among basketball players.

Theres tons of table tennis players who are levels above Steph in hand eye coordination.

How would you be able to measure hand-eye coordination across sports? Like, Steph is orders of magnitude better as a shooter than anyone in NBA history, so if how good of a shooter would he be if he had the hand-eye coordination of a tennis player in your example (maybe give him Federer's abilities)? I am legit curious is all.

I'd disagree that Curry is that much better than his basketball peers. I think he does have some that measure up (Nash/Miller probably my top two after him).

But I'm not sure. Note, I said *table tennis players*, regular tennis players in my estimation require about the same overall balanced athleticism as basketball players (obviously basketball players are a bit more varied due to different positions, but tennis players and NBA guards/wings have fairly similar athletic profiles). Table tennis players are almost exclusively just hand-eye coordination/reaction time outliers. They don't have to be particularly athletic in almost any other way.

I'm not sure if it's just the more specialized training or more a gift that separates them, but I imagine an already highly coordinated basketball player like Steph who could focus exclusively on his shooting/coordination would be like those FT shooting guys who can hit 1000s in a row. Obviously he can't train it nearly as exclusively due to needing to do other things on the court (playing defense, getting open, handling the ball, etc).

My bad I misread your comment. I do find it interesting you believe Nash and Miller to be in the same tier as shooters. I don't know that I never necessarily disagree with that. I feel like Miller was a capable ball-handler but the fact that he wasn't elite makes me pause on the idea of being the level of hand-eye coordination as the other two.

[dhsilv2]

Is height not part of being athletic to your view?

I do think height is a genetic trait, but no I do not think it's an actual athletic ability. In this case we are comparing really mental to physical traits I suppose. In the case of physical traits you can then break those into two categories, one set of physical traits are more permanent. Like if you have big feet you always have big feet. The other set, things like strength, speed, agility, even eyesight, those will degrade over time.

Then you have skills, and skills are something that in some cases actually become greater with age. Like I said some of the best in the world as certain things are actually quite advanced in age. It's because skill isn't nearly as reliant on physical traits, specifically genetic traits and are things that you can hone over time to the point that you outpace the loss in physical abilities. You can't expect a 70 year old man to dunk a basketball, you can expect him to be able to operate on your heart. One is ability, the other is skill.

Not sure I want a 70 year old doing heart surgery to be honest...that said 99.99% of people will never have the genetic ability to become a surgeon in the first place.

And while no, it's rare to see someone dunk at 70, when people peak in certain athletic events wildly varies. NBA guys tend to peak mid to late 20's. Strength athletes peak in their 30's and sometimes 40's. Not all athletic things are the same.

I think you're putting way too many things into this "learned" category. Skills are things that we build on our abilities. Someone who doesn't have steady hands isn't going to become a surgeon. Nor would someone with a low IQ. You just can't work around those things. This is the same with Curry's fine motor skills. He was born with insane motor skills and he's worked and developed skills that utilize them. Just like Shaq was born with both insane size AND coordination...he the used that to develop post moves, learned how to pass, etc. But all these skills are built on those abilities.

[Haldi]

Is height not part of being athletic to your view?

I do think height is a genetic trait, but no I do not think it's an actual athletic ability. In this case we are comparing really mental to physical traits I suppose. In the case of physical traits you can then break those into two categories, one set of physical traits are more permanent. Like if you have big feet you always have big feet. The other set, things like strength, speed, agility, even eyesight, those will degrade over time.

Then you have skills, and skills are something that in some cases actually become greater with age. Like I said some of the best in the world as certain things are actually quite advanced in age. It's because skill isn't nearly as reliant on physical traits, specifically genetic traits and are things that you can hone over time to the point that you outpace the loss in physical abilities. You can't expect a 70 year old man to dunk a basketball, you can expect him to be able to operate on your heart. One is ability, the other is skill.

Not sure I want a 70 year old doing heart surgery to be honest...that said 99.99% of people will never have the genetic ability to become a surgeon in the first place.

And while no, it's rare to see someone dunk at 70, when people peak in certain athletic events wildly varies. NBA guys tend to peak mid to late 20's. Strength athletes peak in their 30's and sometimes 40's. Not all athletic things are the same.

I think you're putting way too many things into this "learned" category. Skills are things that we build on our abilities. Someone who doesn't have steady hands isn't going to become a surgeon. Nor would someone with a low IQ. You just can't work around those things. This is the same with Curry's fine motor skills. He was born with insane motor skills and he's worked and developed skills that utilize them. Just like Shaq was born with both insane size AND coordination...he the used that to develop post moves, learned how to pass, etc. But all these skills are built on those abilities.

Its you that’s not putting enough into this “learned” category. Skills are 100% worked on in life. If Steph had dedicated all that insane time to playing a trumpet, he would be the worlds best trumpet player. And no it wouldn’t be because his “genetics” are superior for trumpet too lol, it would be because he spent an insane amount of time honing this skill.

Its the same for any and every skill you can think of. A chef cutting food for a recipe is gonna do it better than me cause hes done it a thousand times more than me but I can hit a fastball way better than he can cause I’ve hit thousands of balls with a bat, neither of us have a superior genetic trait that allows us to hit the ball better or cut food better. Every skill that I’m good at in life are coincidentally the exact same ones that I spent a ton of time on, imagine that.

[Harry Garris]

I would say on a very basic level, ya he’s correct. One is dominant on basically 100% skill base. The other ones have a solid chunk of elite physical gifts playing a part.

So ya when you have less natural physical gifts, you’ll need to work a little harder to equal the guys that have the physical advantage over you.

Literally all KD does is train and play basketball.

If it was anyone else I might agree that Steph has worked harder to get where he is but I just don't believe that he's worked on his game more than KD has.

[dhsilv2]

I do think height is a genetic trait, but no I do not think it's an actual athletic ability. In this case we are comparing really mental to physical traits I suppose. In the case of physical traits you can then break those into two categories, one set of physical traits are more permanent. Like if you have big feet you always have big feet. The other set, things like strength, speed, agility, even eyesight, those will degrade over time.

Then you have skills, and skills are something that in some cases actually become greater with age. Like I said some of the best in the world as certain things are actually quite advanced in age. It's because skill isn't nearly as reliant on physical traits, specifically genetic traits and are things that you can hone over time to the point that you outpace the loss in physical abilities. You can't expect a 70 year old man to dunk a basketball, you can expect him to be able to operate on your heart. One is ability, the other is skill.

Not sure I want a 70 year old doing heart surgery to be honest...that said 99.99% of people will never have the genetic ability to become a surgeon in the first place.

And while no, it's rare to see someone dunk at 70, when people peak in certain athletic events wildly varies. NBA guys tend to peak mid to late 20's. Strength athletes peak in their 30's and sometimes 40's. Not all athletic things are the same.

I think you're putting way too many things into this "learned" category. Skills are things that we build on our abilities. Someone who doesn't have steady hands isn't going to become a surgeon. Nor would someone with a low IQ. You just can't work around those things. This is the same with Curry's fine motor skills. He was born with insane motor skills and he's worked and developed skills that utilize them. Just like Shaq was born with both insane size AND coordination...he the used that to develop post moves, learned how to pass, etc. But all these skills are built on those abilities.

Its you that’s not putting enough into this “learned” category. Skills are 100% worked on in life. If Steph had dedicated all that insane time to playing a trumpet, he would be the worlds best trumpet player. And no it wouldn’t be because his “genetics” are superior for trumpet too lol, it would be because he spent an insane amount of time honing this skill.

Its the same for any and every skill you can think of. A chef cutting food for a recipe is gonna do it better than me cause hes done it a thousand times more than me but I can hit a fastball way better than he can cause I’ve hit thousands of balls with a bat, neither of us have a superior genetic trait that allows us to hit the ball better or cut food better. Every skill that I’m good at in life are coincidentally the exact same ones that I spent a ton of time on, imagine that.

And I can confidently say no matter how much I worked at it, I'd never be able to hit a fast ball. I could spend 10,000x more than Curry spent, and nothing is going to improve my eye hand coordination to that level. And no, it's virtually impossible Curry could have just become the best trumpet player in the world. That just isn't how it works.

Just like most of us aren't smart enough to be a rocket scientist, no matter how hard we try. Some of us will never hit a fast ball. Some of us will never be decent free throw shooters. And many won't ever be able to shoot a 3 consistently to save our life. Like it or not eye hand coordination is genetics. Go search out some of the research on these topics.

[og15]

Dumbest **** i've heard in a while. Acting as if KD doesn't live and breath basketball everyday. To be that good takes countless hours put in everyday. Hate it when scrubs downplay greatness by acting as if it's all unexplained talent. Lebron and KD are that good because they put the work in.

The point being that if KD and Bron were 6’3 they’d be ordinary.

Isn't a 6'3 LeBron sort of like Westbrook with high IQ? Not sure that's an ordinary player either.

Also based on Durant's skillset at his height, making him 6'3 with his length, skillset, all other natural abilities doesn't seem like an ordinary player. His handles would improve dramatically because the handles he has at his height means his coordination is excellent and are equivalent to great to elite handles for a guard. So a 6'3 lengthy guard with elite handles and elite shooting, that's just an ordinary player?

He wouldn't be as "unstoppable" as he is now due to the help of his height, and he can't have the same defensive impact, especially protecting the rim, but that still screams elite scorer with the ability to be a solid defensive player with that length.

Durant is not the only guy with his height, length and mobility, but the rest didn't get to his skill level or ability. There are physical traits outside of work ethic, though that is one that Durant has over others, but there or other traits that for example, Bruno Caboclo doesn't have, traits he doesn't lose because he's 6'3.

People want to believe that Curry just outworked everyone else, but if you've seen guys train, you'll have two guys who train just as hard, just as much, but one simply eclipses the other because their body picks up things quicker, is naturally better a certain motions, etc, etc.