I think you're equating "mathematician" with "Fields-medallist-adjacent"? As such, I think you'd need to equate such a mathematician to the list of "greatest of

I think you're equating "mathematician" with "Fields-medallist-adjacent"? As such, I think you'd need to equate such a mathematician to the list of "greatest of all time" in basketball, who are still alive. I suspect those numbers would still tilt in favor of there being more mathematicians than NBA players. On the other hand, I think this is a great way for us science-y types to get a good handle on how hard being an NBA player is: NBA players are the moral equivalent of near-Fields-medallists; that's how good they are compared to the rest of us. I'm no mathematical slouch — I've done grad work in Math, taught myself differential geometry, etc.; but it'd be fruitless to compare me to Terry Tao. There's really no reference for how good he is at math compared to me. I think, analogously, you wouldn't be able to compare a college-level basketball player to, say, Michael Jordan.