I Have A New-Found Respect For NBA Players. God Damn!

[8SD8-retired_member]

Have any of you dudes even seen an NBA elite or NBA legend play in a pick up game?

With some of the amazing shit I've seen from dudes who never made it or weren't considered great, I'm trying to understand what's so damned different. What can you possibly do to be nicer?

 

[streetdreamer]

I'm sure you cats know Kenny 'The Jet' Smith from TNT, and formerly of the Houston Rockets.

Kenny was never a super-star, but he played in the NBA. As of today, that shit says a lot to me. It's not that I thought guys could actually make it and be straight garbage, but...

Well, a friend of mine gave me a video he recorded back in 1998 of Kenny Smith, God Shamgod(Cat from NY, that played for Providence, with the slick handles), and Joe Wolf, formerly of the Orlando Magic. These dudes were working out, right? Now, peep ... Shamgod was always known for having a broke jumper, and Joe Wolf's GAME was broke(At least on the pro-level) and Kenny Smith could always dial it in from long distance, but...

On this video, I see God Shammgod knocking down jumpers like they were lay-ups. Sure, it was a work-out, but this dude would knock down 15, miss on or two, hit another 15, miss one or two, knock own another 15. I'm like, what in the fuck am I seeing? I've never seen that kind of shooting in my life.

Joe Wolf? This big gawky White boy was firing away from deep like it was breathing. I mean jumper after jumper after motherfucking jumper. I'm wondering how did that dude suck in the NBA, at all.

If you think this is nothing because it's not in a game, then get a ball, go outside, and try to knock down fifteen 15-foot jumpers in a row.

But, that's not even the best of it...

Kenny Smith. Kenny Fucking Smith...

This is my fucking word...

...The Jet knocked down 20 three's. Missed one. Knocked down TWENTY-FIVE!! Missed two. Knocked down like 11. Missed one. Knocked down 24....

You get my point.

They played this game where you started at the top of the key, and you could only use two dribbles. All three of those guys were draining jumpers like it was nothing...

I thought to myself, 'None of these guys were superstars, and they're hitting shots like it's throwing a rock into a ocean. The NBA must be a motherfucker. GOD-DAMN! HOW GOOD WAS JORDAN, REALLY ... IF THESE DUDES LOOK LIKE JORDAN RIGHT NOW?!?!"

To any of you cats that tried to make it pro, and never made it, I understand completely now. These dudes are FAR better than people give them credit for.

I remember being at Alberta park with Damon Staudamire and he would drop turn around jumpers from all the way out of bounds in pick up games. The NBA must be crazy.

 

[hardworkpays]

YUP, as one former baller now says. "In the NBA, I was Jalen Rose.. on the playground I'm WILT CHAMBERLIN.. "

 

[jwilliam85]

I do agree with a lot of what you guys are saying about the average cat going against the dude you view as the "untalented bum" riding the pine, but you all are leaving out a very integral part of sports, nonetheless life....POLITICS!!

A lot of dudes have talent up the ass, skills that would make you think that you were playing against Ray Allen and Tracy McGrady, and natural physical ability that is up to par with Kobe, but for whatever reason they don't get time because someone else was already promised the starting spot, regardless if they are better than that dude.

Prime example: Ryan Gomes... Coach Welsh up at Providence College had him as a red shirt for his freshmen year and would have probably been red shirted his sophomore year had it not been for the cat starting at power forward getting injured. Ryan has always been nice, with the same abilities he has now, just worked to perfect it to the level it is at now.

Just imagine, dude would have never made it into the starting lineup had it not been for a fuck up on someone else's part... that's how sports and life work...

Now for the other knuckleheads with all that damn talent but with a fucked up mindset, I can't speak for them...

Trust me though, this is how it works.

Yep, Tom Brady.

 

[Bluelaser]

Its all in the way you practice during your shoot around, most players work on mechanics so they can get a good feel for the ball during warm ups, I used to however, work on my quick release and try to push my range as well as my speed of my release.
Some of my practice shots used to look crazy as hell 'cause most of the time I would practice coming off of the pick spotiing grabing and shooting, all in one motion from the 3 point range.
It never made much sense to me practicing on a shot that 9 times out of 10 you would never be that open and have that much time to shoot in a real game.
I, instead, tried to simulate game speed conditions, and pushed the envelope to shoot faster and faster. People who never saw me play would accuse me of not looking when I shot, just throwing shit up, but it was something that I worked hard and long at to master. I say that to say, that I feel that many players,even the ones in the pro go about shoot around the wrong way, what is the point of looking nice when no one is sticking you and can't hit for shit with a hand in your face. Sorry to say but that way of playing is ass backwards!
The speed of the game is what throws off most players shots, if you fuck up their rhythm most of them can't shoot, so if a player looks nice in practice but can't hit shit during the game, they better work on ways to speed up their setting up and release point during the shot.

Exactly!

 

[850credit]

Gilbert Arenas vs. Deshawn Stevenson 3 point shooting contest with money on the line


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn6O42a5vl8

 

[Rick Ronson]

I could have gone pro i wasnt wit it

Still could if i wanted to.

 

[WaterBottle]

case in point: jared jeffries was Mr. Indiana.

bum ass jared jeffries....


http://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com/25th/vote/boys-basketball/bio/1155/

 

[Rock'Em Sock'Em Jones]

Gilbert Arenas vs. Deshawn Stevenson 3 point shooting contest with money on the line


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn6O42a5vl8

ASSIST

Damn, Arenas was money!!! 73/100



I can tell Arenas one of them dudes that play too damn much though. One of them niggas you gotta smack the shit out of one day just to let him know you ain't the one.

You can tell Stephenson was gettin' a little aggravated w/ Arenas clownin' around and shit.

 

[Rembrandt]

This is one of the better threads I have seen in a while.

This is the reason I really don't like a lot of sports writers and sportscasters. Athletes work harder at their craft than most of us work at anything. Yet these writers, just to get noticed, will call them "soft", losersconfused, and whatever other adjective they can come up with just to sell papers.

Very good thread again.

Now I hope we all can get off of Kwame Browns case

I wouldn't say that because they watch so much sports that they can see the difference between those guys who have it and don't. It's not like they just walk in off the street, they look and study the game just as much as players and scouts. You wouldn't tell a scout not to downgrade a player that works hard but just isn't good enough you take from it what you can.

 

[Non-StopJFK2TAB]

ASSIST

Damn, Arenas was money!!! 73/100



I can tell Arenas one of them dudes that play too damn much though. One of them niggas you gotta smack the shit out of one day just to let him know you ain't the one.

You can tell Stephenson was gettin' a little aggravated w/ Arenas clownin' around and shit.

Dude made em one handed. And Stevenson was easily rattled.

 

[(0_0)..l.. finger]

yeah man.i remember when I was a kid and went to an Isaiah Thomas basketball camp and him and Joe Dumars came out and played with us...and Dumars was built a like a fucking truck...dude's legs were huge...

----------------------------------------------------------
Sasha Vujacic on Sport Science


Shaq is the worst

and

 

[crossovernegro]

It's kinda like a few years back when Anna Kournikova was still playing tennis. People used to say all kinds of shit about her because she was known more for her looks than her game, and some people would say that she stank as a player.... but I'd be like, hey, she may not be Venus or Hingis, etc... but that chick was once ranked in the top 10 and reached the semi-finals and quarter finals in some grand slam tournaments. I guarantee that bitch could do her makeup with her weak hand and beat the shit out of 97% of the people (dudes included) in the world with her strong hand on the court, without breaking much of a sweat.

The worst player in the league is better than 99.9% of the people on the planet...

 

[Spectrum]

Have any of you dudes even seen an NBA elite or NBA legend play in a pick up game?

With some of the amazing shit I've seen from dudes who never made it or weren't considered great, I'm trying to understand what's so damned different. What can you possibly do to be nicer?

Yes. I have...they make players that youve seen that you thought were good look like complete bums... I was in a game at b-ball camp with Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas and they were straight roasting players..even Joe D with his conservative style was on some And 1 crossing mofos type of shit... and again non-nba defenders those cats dont miss...

 

[Rock'Em Sock'Em Jones]

Sasha Vujacic on Sport Science


Shaq is the worst

 

[8SD8-retired_member]

Heh.

Listened to Phil Jackson's book, and he said DICKEY SIMPKINS was one of the most dominant practice players he had ever seen.

Damn.

Confidence HAS to be everything.

 

[bborn]

peace

God Shamgod ... not that's a name I haven't heard in awhile.

Still have paint on my kicks from priming that wall @ the beginning lol

peace

 

[woodchuck]

I always laugh when cats call pro athletes "garbage". NOBODY on a pro squad is garbage! They may not be the best you've ever seen, or the best on their own team, but they ain't garbage. You don't make it past the last cut list by being garbage. I played a pick up game with Mark Price once. I've always fancied myself to be a pretty decent point guard. Dude was putting the rock into places I didn't know existed! He was delivering to guys that thought they were double covered. Cats were so shocked to get the rock, they were missing layups!

 

[vandamation]

peace



Still have paint on my kicks from priming that wall @ the beginning lol

peace

fixed

 

[thereason]

Yep, a NBA scrub will go and dominate any rec you and your boys play at...

very very true

 

[Dragonfly Jones]

Yep, a NBA scrub will go and dominate any rec you and your boys play at...

I'll take it a step further most d-1 ball players will go and dominate any rec also. Me and my boys played a few pick up games against a cat who sat the bench for Florida State as a point guard. He was killing. My boy asked him why didn't he start and why didn't he try to play in the NBA. He was like according to NBA players I'm not that good I'm just better than you . He was hitting everything and he had a killer handle fucking my boy up.

 

[yasky777]

Word, I remember when I went to Miami for memorial a few years back and he was hanging on the corner of 19th and Collins, and i'm like "This nigga mad little...I should take his chain"


Then I came to my senses, prolly got shooters all around. Chopped it up with him for a few, cool ass dude.

I hung with dude when they were playing the Pacers I forget the year maybe 02 we were at Club Mecca in Nap and dude was choppin it up with normal cats in the vip some bitch stole his leather/fur coat, he chased her for about 20ft and turned around laughing... Bought another 3 bottles and kept it crackin.

First time I saw him I was wearing his Jersey in downtown Nap Nordstrom we were walking towards each other I said wsup, he got off the phone said he "appreciates the support" in that raspy ass horse voice of his gave me a pound and kept pushin. He put up like 45 on the Pacers that game... CLASSIC

 

[Upgrade Dave]

Yep, a NBA scrub will go and dominate any rec you and your boys play at...

There are a lot of guys who would be considered scrubs who were stars in college and some were considered superstars and most of them probably still hold some type of record at their high school.

 

[Upgrade Dave]

I'll take it a step further most d-1 ball players will go and dominate any rec also. Me and my boys played a few pick up games against a cat who sat the bench for Florida State as a point guard. He was killing. My boy asked him why didn't he start and why didn't he try to play in the NBA. He was like according to NBA players I'm not that good I'm just better than you . He was hitting everything and he had a killer handle fucking my boy up.

 

[woodchuck]

There are a lot of guys who would be considered scrubs who were stars in college and some were considered superstars and most of them probably still hold some type of record at their high school.

Doug Gottleib on why he didn't make it in the NBA: "In college, an open shot is a contested shot in the NBA. A contested shot in college is a blocked shot in the NBA. You have no idea how fast and long these guys are."

 

[Naha-Nago]

Yep, a NBA scrub will go and dominate any rec you and your boys play at...

Yep, seen it with my own eyes. Them niggas are scoring machines.


*two cents*

 

[Upgrade Dave]

Doug Gottleib on why he didn't make it in the NBA: "In college, an open shot is a contested shot in the NBA. A contested shot in college is a blocked shot in the NBA. You have no idea how fast and long these guys are."

It's truly the best of the best especially now that they're bringing in the international guys.

 

[Blunt]

I thought you were gonna give ugly-ass Kenny Smith respect for nailing one of the hottest looking Price Is Right models, British amazon Gwendolyn Osborne.

 

[Zyin]

pressure is different though
just as good as they offence the defenders defense

 

[MrBee]

i've seen shamgod play live numerous times. his speed and handle were his best abilities.

Ditto...Word..

Nigga had me wanting to change my name and become God (u know what i'm sayin)...

 

[HAR125LEM]

JOE WOLF???

This guy's ASS was practically laughed out of Portland when he came to The BLAZERS in the early 90s.

 

[prose00]

great thread

 

[Maxxam]

I try to tell people this on the regular... you have NO IDEA how good you have to be to play in the NBA. Just to be be a scrub, you have to have game that makes regular people if they saw you in a regular game. When you start talking about guys at the top of the game... Wade, Kobe, Lebron, and so on

you may laugh at a guy like JJ Barea or Carlos Arroyo, but they'll bust your ass if you see them at the Y

 

[miamimac305]

I'm eye to eye with the nigga and I'm 5'10" maybe 5"10 and 1/2 if a nigga get a yoga session in.

 

[slam]

[flash]http://www.youtube.com/v/_rD424rjpyQ[/flash]

>>>>>>

if i wuz watching this & didnt know MJ ...i would pick him last....