Do you think there are people without competitiveness in the NBA?

[iamgine]

There's a friend of mine who plays basketball for a local team. The guy doesn't really care for basketball. To him it's just a silly game. He's tall, athletic and works hard at his game. He enjoys the camaraderie but he doesn't care at all whether the team wins or lose. It's just a way to provide for his family that will pay him the most amount of money.

In other words, the guy has no competitiveness. He doesn't view winning a game anything important. If he wants to improve, it's so he can keep his spot or increase his salary. If he wants to win, it's for the $$ bonus.

You think there are people like this in the NBA?

[Real Men Wear Green]

A few rare cases. To get that far without any drive you have to have tremendous gifts though and a guy like that almost never gets more than one good contract.

[Xiao Yao You]

yep. Guys like Ayton, Wiggins, Whiteside etc. Big, athletic, naturally talented that play because it makes them a bunch of money

[Akeem34TheDream]

Michael Jordan was like that

[SouBeachTalents]

Michael Jordan was like that
Great example, he only cared about the endorsements.

[Wally450]

I can't speak for NBA players, but there are examples in other sports. Lamont Jordan, running back in the NFL said he didn't really enjoy football but did it because it was his job. Same with Keith Foulke, pitcher in the MLB.

[Kblaze8855]

Darko didn’t like basketball at all. He never watched it before or after the league. He admitted in an interview a few years ago he didn’t even know anyone in the NBA but when he was asked in an interview, he said Kevin Garnett was his favorite player because he heard he was tall and skilled. He had no interest in basketball he was just big and mobile so he played to get ahead in life.

Lots of guys like that. Mostly the big ones who know it’s the best career choice.

[ImKobe]

I think that's how half or maybe even most of the league views it. The game itself isn't as important as the money and how people perceive them. They have to work hard in order to be in that position which you could argue is competitiveness in itself, but if we're purely talking about the game and caring about winning every single game? There's not that many people who take it that seriously. These guys are smiling & buddy-buddy after losses you see it every game, even the guys who you'd think are all about competition.

[iamgine]

I think that's how half or maybe even most of the league views it. The game itself isn't as important as the money and how people perceive them. They have to work hard in order to be in that position which you could argue is competitiveness in itself, but if we're purely talking about the game and caring about winning every single game? There's not that many people who take it that seriously. These guys are smiling & buddy-buddy after losses you see it every game, even the guys who you'd think are all about competition.

I think most of them have some competitiveness during the game. It doesn't have to be 'win or die' level of competitiveness.

[warriorfan]

Andrew Wiggins

[ArbitraryWater]

I think that's how half or maybe even most of the league views it. The game itself isn't as important as the money and how people perceive them. They have to work hard in order to be in that position which you could argue is competitiveness in itself, but if we're purely talking about the game and caring about winning every single game? There's not that many people who take it that seriously. These guys are smiling & buddy-buddy after losses you see it every game, even the guys who you'd think are all about competition.

Are you crazy?

You can see with how they act that 90+% of these guys care very much. Even random bench guys trash talk.

[ImKobe]

Are you crazy?

You can see with how they act that 90+% of these guys care very much. Even random bench guys trash talk.

Most of these guys are worried about their next contract. Like 5% of the league is the All-Stars and then you got role players and guys at the end of the bench who might not see any PT outside of blowout scenarios.

You can't tell me all those guys are locked in on winning. The Stars that make generational wealth have the privilege to just care about winning because they got their money & winning boosts their image, but the guy who might have 5-7 years in the league, who makes the minimum or MLE at best, is probably thinking more about their production and the minutes rather than just winning the game alone.

Like yeah everyone's competitive to an extent if we just go by the definition of the word, but by OP's definition there's a lot of people in the league who are more worried about the money and their image than just the game itself. The Kobe/Jordan mentality is rare for a reason. People got other shit going on other than basketball too man.


I think most of them have some competitiveness during the game. It doesn't have to be 'win or die' level of competitiveness.


For sure, but there's levels to caring about winning, right? Most players in the league would leave a winning team for a losing one if they got more money because most players aren't stars and don't get that much PT.

[Manny98]

A lot of players don't care about winning but they're still driven by money at the end of the day

[GimmeThat]

I think mazes or pure short term memorie tests aren't puzzles,

[3ba11]

most of the league is like that - there's varying degrees but winning is definitely a tertiary concern - everything OP said is spot-on

there's so many guys that are on the fringe of being in the league - it's the difference between making 40k a year with a used Honda versus being filthy rich.. Being able to cling on that the latter lifestyle is more important than "winning" and this is the case for a large percentage of the league (the guys on the fringe).

Luka, Jokic, Tatum, Jaylen Brown and many others don't have to play ball for $95,000 a year and they wouldn't - they can probably make a lot more doing something else - if hoops only paid 95k, then these guys would pursue something else that affords the luxury they currently enjoy..

[Wally450]

Andrew Wiggins

Wanted to bump this thread to mention his name.

Dude was -29 in 17 minutes against the Raptors.

Dude got his ring and got paid, he's completely mailed it in.

[noonereal]

There's a friend of mine who plays basketball for a local team. The guy doesn't really care for basketball. To him it's just a silly game. He's tall, athletic and works hard at his game. He enjoys the camaraderie but he doesn't care at all whether the team wins or lose. It's just a way to provide for his family that will pay him the most amount of money.

In other words, the guy has no competitiveness. He doesn't view winning a game anything important. If he wants to improve, it's so he can keep his spot or increase his salary. If he wants to win, it's for the $$ bonus.

You think there are people like this in the NBA?

LOL, you never heard of Kyrie Irving? :roll:

[Street Hunger]

Salaries are so crazy high that you have to think that some of these players, once they have literally 100 or $200 million are going to lose a competitive edge.