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I love the concept behind this. I have thought for a while now that we are not necessarily guaranteed to see the best basketball players in the world perform i

I love the concept behind this. I have thought for a while now that we are not necessarily guaranteed to see the best basketball players in the world perform in the NBA, nor are we guaranteed to see the fastest runners in the world win the 100 meter dash in the Summer Olympics. We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money, and the fastest runners who are motivated by fame.

FanaHOVA 7y ago
> We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money The best players in the NBA are not just motivated by money. They're motivated to be recognized as one of the best to ever do it.
kbenson 7y ago
I think it depends on whether by the "best" you mean the best potential person, or best current person. At the levels these sports are competed at now, I think natural talent by itself can in no way stand at the top. It takes natural talent and then dedicating a significant portion of your life to cultivating that talent. So, does the potential for a faster runner exist out there now? Undoubtedly (this is a safe bet, since records are still being broken). Is some street ball player going to walk in and dominate the NBA, or some weekend runner going to storm the Olympics next time? I doubt it.
dooglius 7y ago
Considering that both of these things require years of training and dedication to be the best, I think it is quite likely that only career basketball players and runners are going to be the best.
moufestaphio 7y ago
>We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money, and the fastest runners who are motivated by fame. I think that's a pretty big stretch. First of all, not all basketball players/runners are motivated by money/fame. If you are really good at something competitive you want to do it against other people who are also good. So it's highly likely that the best people want to compete against others who are at there level. Also with all the modern training, dieting and everything modern athletes do, I think it's pretty laughable to think someone can just 'walk up' and be better than them.
- faceplanted 7y ago
  You have a good point, distance running is the exception as far as I can tell, in that this has actually happened more than once now, I can't remember his name but the Australian ultra marathon runner who came out of nowhere from being a shepherd or something and more recently this article, people showing up with a new technique doesn't really happen in other sports like this, let me know if I'm missing some examples though, other sports tend to have far less variables I think, ultra marathon runners make a lot of decisions that sprinters and velodrome cyclists don't have to or at least they don't have as much of a cumulative effect. But then i do also think the guy above you has a point in that we can be pretty much certain based on the biases we know about that we're probably overlooking some excellent people in big sports just based on failures in our selection methods. There's no reason that children born in September should be better at sports and get better degrees, but they are over represented because of the way we select kids for sports based on school year, if you're older in the year at school, the benefits carry for a long time, and we've probably missed some potentially incredible athletes because of minor circumstances like that which caused them either to not get into it or not get the training they need. But that's not quite the same as them _currently_ being better outside of the competitions. Still bothers me though.
cafard 7y ago
People do come out of nowhere occasionally. But as somebody noted above (and I agreed), the times given are not on their face especially impressive. Of course there are all kinds of factors affecting the likelihood of the best making it to the championship--injuries, or a bad day in the qualifying rounds, to name a couple.
SimCity3000 7y ago
> We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money I wouldn't say that. As an NBA fan, I feel that players that are motivated by money fall off once they make it to the league. They lose their passion, fall out of shape, and waste their potential. The best players are the ones that are so passionate about basketball that they don't know what they would do without it, are able to stay out of legal trouble, and are able to stay relatively injury free. American football is much the same way, but with more emphasis on staying injury free. Sadly when they retire, if their body is wrecked from the sport and they don't have anything else they're passionate about, they often turn to suicide. Also for decades now, many NBA players have mentioned in interviews and whatnot that they know players that are better than players in the league, but never made it because of drugs/crime/other off the court issues. On a side note, auto racing has a different problem. We don't necessarily see the best drivers in each racing series because it takes a lot of talent AND funding to get to that point. There are likely many drivers that are more talented but never had the funding to reach the highest levels.

FanaHOVA 7y ago

> We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money The best players in the NBA are not just motivated by money. They're motivated to be recognized as one of the best to ever do it.

kbenson 7y ago

I think it depends on whether by the "best" you mean the best potential person, or best current person. At the levels these sports are competed at now, I think natural talent by itself can in no way stand at the top. It takes natural talent and then dedicating a significant portion of your life to cultivating that talent. So, does the potential for a faster runner exist out there now? Undoubtedly (this is a safe bet, since records are still being broken). Is some street ball player going to walk in and dominate the NBA, or some weekend runner going to storm the Olympics next time? I doubt it.

dooglius 7y ago

Considering that both of these things require years of training and dedication to be the best, I think it is quite likely that only career basketball players and runners are going to be the best.

moufestaphio 7y ago

>We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money, and the fastest runners who are motivated by fame. I think that's a pretty big stretch. First of all, not all basketball players/runners are motivated by money/fame. If you are really good at something competitive you want to do it against other people who are also good. So it's highly likely that the best people want to compete against others who are at there level. Also with all the modern training, dieting and everything modern athletes do, I think it's pretty laughable to think someone can just 'walk up' and be better than them.

faceplanted 7y ago
You have a good point, distance running is the exception as far as I can tell, in that this has actually happened more than once now, I can't remember his name but the Australian ultra marathon runner who came out of nowhere from being a shepherd or something and more recently this article, people showing up with a new technique doesn't really happen in other sports like this, let me know if I'm missing some examples though, other sports tend to have far less variables I think, ultra marathon runners make a lot of decisions that sprinters and velodrome cyclists don't have to or at least they don't have as much of a cumulative effect. But then i do also think the guy above you has a point in that we can be pretty much certain based on the biases we know about that we're probably overlooking some excellent people in big sports just based on failures in our selection methods. There's no reason that children born in September should be better at sports and get better degrees, but they are over represented because of the way we select kids for sports based on school year, if you're older in the year at school, the benefits carry for a long time, and we've probably missed some potentially incredible athletes because of minor circumstances like that which caused them either to not get into it or not get the training they need. But that's not quite the same as them _currently_ being better outside of the competitions. Still bothers me though.

cafard 7y ago

People do come out of nowhere occasionally. But as somebody noted above (and I agreed), the times given are not on their face especially impressive. Of course there are all kinds of factors affecting the likelihood of the best making it to the championship--injuries, or a bad day in the qualifying rounds, to name a couple.

SimCity3000 7y ago

> We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money I wouldn't say that. As an NBA fan, I feel that players that are motivated by money fall off once they make it to the league. They lose their passion, fall out of shape, and waste their potential. The best players are the ones that are so passionate about basketball that they don't know what they would do without it, are able to stay out of legal trouble, and are able to stay relatively injury free. American football is much the same way, but with more emphasis on staying injury free. Sadly when they retire, if their body is wrecked from the sport and they don't have anything else they're passionate about, they often turn to suicide. Also for decades now, many NBA players have mentioned in interviews and whatnot that they know players that are better than players in the league, but never made it because of drugs/crime/other off the court issues. On a side note, auto racing has a different problem. We don't necessarily see the best drivers in each racing series because it takes a lot of talent AND funding to get to that point. There are likely many drivers that are more talented but never had the funding to reach the highest levels.