Off topic: Have ya ever wondered.....

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
Ghost Pepper

Ghost Pepper

Active Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
1,610
Likes
18
Points
38
why all the kids of the great players in the NBA never amount to crap in the NBA? Waltons kid is probably the best one. Further why are all these great centers kids so much shorter than their dads? My generation is taller than our parents, why does it not apply to the NBA kids?

By now Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Jordan, Hakeem, Sampson and many other amazing player should have kids going into college. Not hearing about them, seems strange to me is all!
 
some of jordans kids are at university of illinios. isn't one of them pretty good?
 
Yardape said:
why all the kids of the great players in the NBA never amount to crap in the NBA? Waltons kid is probably the best one. Further why are all these great centers kids so much shorter than their dads? My generation is taller than our parents, why does it not apply to the NBA kids?

By now Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Jordan, Hakeem, Sampson and many other amazing player should have kids going into college. Not hearing about them, seems strange to me is all!
Click to expand...

Well, to become a great player you need to scratch, claw, and fight every day against a multitude of things to improve and prove you are among the best. If you're dad's making millions, you tend to not have that mindset.
 
But that's sort of my point, if they were really that good with Jordan as a dad or Hakeem or any of the greats wouldn't ESPN be all over their stories since high school?
 
curry, has a younger brother. Seth Curry a freshman at Liberty. he's tearing it up
 
What about Rick Barry's
 
dunno, if I were a millionaire athllete's kid, I would probably be more spoiled than anything....be an aspiring actor or rapper or something. hard to have that drive...I mean, when you look at it, how many kids want to do what their parents do?
 
Wizard Mentor said:
Well, to become a great player you need to scratch, claw, and fight every day against a multitude of things to improve and prove you are among the best. If you're dad's making millions, you tend to not have that mindset.
Click to expand...

Unless you're Grant Hill.
 
Yardape said:
why all the kids of the great players in the NBA never amount to crap in the NBA? Waltons kid is probably the best one. Further why are all these great centers kids so much shorter than their dads? My generation is taller than our parents, why does it not apply to the NBA kids?

By now Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Jordan, Hakeem, Sampson and many other amazing player should have kids going into college. Not hearing about them, seems strange to me is all!
Click to expand...

Clearly you have not had enough psychotherapy in your life time... It's ALWAYS the mother's fault. :devilwink:
 
As for height, even if height is in your family, how often does a 7 footer come along? just because your dad is 7' doesn't mean you'll be 7'.

Same goes for talent. 1 out of however many thousand people playing varsity high school basketball make it to the NBA. You may have some good teaching if your dad is an NBA player, but you have to be one of the best of the best to even have a shot at the NBA.
 
It's true that it's pretty hard to get two 7 footers in the same family. Spencer Hawes is 7'0", his dad Steve is 6'9". They both played the same position, though, thanks to quality 7 footers being harder to come by back in the day.
 
Many people don't want to live in their parent's shadow and be constantly compared to them. Some don't want to take advantage of the breaks they would be given with a famous parent in their field of work.

Most probably have no desire to embrace a career that means you won't be there for your family 50% of the time, and you're on the road the other 50%.

It's a pretty lame career for someone with intellect and a desire to improve the world.
 
Yardape said:
Further why are all these great centers kids so much shorter than their dads? My generation is taller than our parents, why does it not apply to the NBA kids?
Click to expand...

Innate traits tend to regress to the mean over single generations. If you're taller than average, your child will most likely be shorter than you. If you are shorter than average, your child will most likely be taller than you. These are probabilities, so of course isn't true in every case. And the further from average you are, the higher the probability that your child will be shorter/taller than you.

Same is true for intelligence or athletic ability, which is why children of NBA players are rarely/never as good as their famous parent. Plus, of course, there is the mother to consider. Her share of the bequeathed genes complicate it further.
 
So many things have to line up just perfectly for a great athlete to be great. Physical attributes, experiences that allow the talent to flourish, an innate drive that can't be easily explained... the list goes on and on.

There simply haven't been (by definition) many "great" NBA players. While their offspring have a much better than average chance (based on genes) to be great (even accounting for reversion to the norm tendencies) the odds are still stacked against them and I don't find it THAT surprising that we haven't seen (m)any two-generation greats in the NBA.

Ed O.
 
236974.jpg


Ralph Sampson lll plays at the University of Minnesota. He's not nearly as big as his dad - 6'11" 220 lbs.
 
I was talking to Voodoo Child a few years ago, and he told me he played against Jerry West's kid.

Apparently he was terrible.
 
The players you mentioned are gifted - Wilt, Kareem, MJ, etc. Sure they pass along great genes, but to expect that a son will have the same exceptional gift is unrealistic I think.

How many great musicans have musical prodigy children, or writers, etc? Very few.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top