Don't you think most elite athletes are dumb people?

[iamgine]

"...Take NBA players. From a young age all they do is ball. Most of their time is consumed by basketball so they must have little time or energy to learn about other things. Yeah they will be smart about how to play basketball but that's all."


How accurate do you think this is?

[warriorfan]

balling takes smarts

[GimmeThat]

anyone who looks to initiate contact outside the allowed context is dumb

[bdonovan]

"...Take NBA players. From a young age all they do is ball. Most of their time is consumed by basketball so they must have little time or energy to learn about other things. Yeah they will be smart about how to play basketball but that's all."


How accurate do you think this is?

Intelligence comes in different dimensions. In Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slow, he outlines two major kinds of different kinds of thinking:

Type 1: Thinking that is "rapid, intuitive, automatic and unconscious"
Type 2: Thinking that is "slower, more logical, analytical, conscious"

In my case, I am a type 2 thinker. I sit at my desk, deliberate, analyze and given enough time, I can develop solutions or plans.
I am not a good Type 1 thinker. I cannot easily beat people off the dribble, I am not good in debates with people because I cannot think as fast off the top.

NBA players are world class Type 1 thinkers. You think about LeBron or Jokic making split-second decisions on who to get the ball to. Or noticing a mismatch and choosing to exploit it. It stands to reason they would also be good at other Type 1 activities like deciding how to store luggage on a airplane luggage cart and things like that. My girlfriend is like that - she is a very fast Type 1 thinker and I am Type 2- I can do the taxes, research which doctors are good etc.

Then again, some players are Type 2 thinkers as well. They often become coaches. Or I remember Chris Bosh learning how to program Javascript which I thought was pretty awesome.

[90sgoat]

Yeah, I think so.

Not stupid, but definitely dumb and basic.

[Kblaze8855]

Not learning a wide variety of things doesn’t make you unintelligent. Not being able to learn is closer. Simply focusing on one thing isn’t the same. That’s ignorance not inability.

[Manny98]

Academically yes but in terms of actual intelligence no

There's a lot of memory, understanding plays, positioning and quick decision making that go into sports so the top players probably have a above average iq

[ImKobe]

Most of the elite athletes are highly intelligent people. NBA players in general have to make a lot of fast decisions and learn quite a bit in order to play the game at a high level.

They might not be book smart, but reading books does not make one intelligent anyway. Doctors can be dumb too outside of their field.

[ArbitraryWater]

Most of the elite athletes are highly intelligent people. NBA players in general have to make a lot of fast decisions and learn quite a bit in order to play the game at a high level.

They might not be book smart, but reading books does not make one intelligent anyway. Doctors can be dumb too outside of their field.


What a pipe dream. NBA players obviously have some smarts in their 94x50, they play on it every day.. that doesnt make them "highly intelligent people". Nothing of that translates to any real life processes.


:oldlol:

[ArbitraryWater]

Intelligence comes in different dimensions. In Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking Fast and Slow, he outlines two major kinds of different kinds of thinking:

Type 1: Thinking that is "rapid, intuitive, automatic and unconscious"
Type 2: Thinking that is "slower, more logical, analytical, conscious"

In my case, I am a type 2 thinker. I sit at my desk, deliberate, analyze and given enough time, I can develop solutions or plans.
I am not a good Type 1 thinker. I cannot easily beat people off the dribble, I am not good in debates with people because I cannot think as fast off the top.

NBA players are world class Type 1 thinkers. You think about LeBron or Jokic making split-second decisions on who to get the ball to. Or noticing a mismatch and choosing to exploit it. It stands to reason they would also be good at other Type 1 activities like deciding how to store luggage on a airplane luggage cart and things like that. My girlfriend is like that - she is a very fast Type 1 thinker and I am Type 2- I can do the taxes, research which doctors are good etc.

Then again, some players are Type 2 thinkers as well. They often become coaches. Or I remember Chris Bosh learning how to program Javascript which I thought was pretty awesome.



Players are most definitely not type 1 thinkers just because they play a fast sport :oldlol:


layman argument.

[FKAri]

They're either average or slightly above average intelligence on average. They may be out of touch on some issues because they've been focused on basketball for most of their lives but that can be applied to anyone with obsessive interests and hobbies.

[FultzNationRISE]

Elite athletes? Of course not.

Most sports are a combination of physical and mental. So the elite players in a given sport will usually be whoever has a good combination of both. Doesnt mean every elite athlete has to be Einstein. Nor does it mean they all have to be Usain Bolt. But it would be hard to be elite if youre below average in either way.

Not to say there cant be exceptions, but when you look at the greats of each sport… it’s rare to have someone who is observably stupid.

[bullettooth]

Duh, lol. They spend most of their time kicking or throwing a ball around. Not a whole lot intellectual stimulation happening for these people.

[Real Men Wear Green]

"A person that spends most of their time working on their job must be stupid" is a stupid thing to say.

[tpols]

It honestly depends. Some guys are such great athletes they don't need to even be smart. Terrell Owen's or Randy Moss or Tyreek Hill or Aaron Donald etc. don't need to be smart. But other positions do need to be like QB. Because they're actually making pre-snap reads and using more of their mental faculties than pure physical.

When it comes to basketball, all superstars are basically QBs. So they need to be able to make pre-read plays and use their brain to capitalize with some rare exceptions like Shaq and Giannis types whose games are based on just physically running you over. I don't think NFL running backs score high on the IQ tests they give them. They're job is to just hit the hole hard and reflexively jump sideways if a guy is diving at them.

[Xiao Yao You]

It honestly depends. Some guys are such great athletes they don't need to even be smart. Terrell Owen's or Randy Moss or Tyreek Hill or Aaron Donald etc. don't need to be smart. But other positions do need to be like QB. Because they're actually making pre-snap reads and using more of their mental faculties than pure physical.

When it comes to basketball, all superstars are basically QBs. So they need to be able to make pre-read plays and use their brain to capitalize with some rare exceptions like Shaq and Giannis types whose games are based on just physically running you over. I don't think NFL running backs score high on the IQ tests they give them. They're job is to just hit the hole hard and reflexively jump sideways if a guy is diving at them.

Tyreek Hill has to make reads. Has to make the same read as Tua or else the pass won't be going his way

[tpols]

Tyreek Hill has to make reads. Has to make the same read as Tua or else the pass won't be going his way


Not really... unless you think WRs are the ones making the reads and relaying the Intel to their QBs. Which is probably a pretty rare thing. The o-linemen and coaches and QBs notice the coverage and call it out. Tyreek just runs whatever the audible is. He barely ever has to use his brain to any sort of extensive degree.

[Xiao Yao You]

Not really... unless you think WRs are the ones making the reads and relaying the Intel to their QBs. Which is probably a pretty rare thing. The o-linemen and coaches and QBs notice the coverage and call it out. Tyreek just runs whatever the audible is. He barely ever has to use his brain to any sort of extensive degree.

Don't know about all teams but Tyreek makes reads. Watch them play. Tua throws the ball before the receiver makes his break. Sometimes Tua throw an out and Tyreek breaks in. They read the coverage different. I know BYU was doing this in the 70's. They influenced the west coast offense to come

[tpols]

Don't know about all teams but Tyreek makes reads. Watch them play. Tua throws the ball before the receiver makes his break. Sometimes Tua throw an out and Tyreek breaks in. They read the coverage different. I know BYU was doing this in the 70's. They influenced the west coast offense to come

I've watched him play 1000 times. I play fantasy a lot and had him on my teams.

That isn't really intelligence though. Tyreek just has the freak speed to catch a ball that was out of place. He's a tremendous athlete. Watch an interview with him. He makes Lebron look like Albert Einstein.

[FultzNationRISE]

It honestly depends. Some guys are such great athletes they don't need to even be smart. Terrell Owen's or Randy Moss or Tyreek Hill or Aaron Donald etc. don't need to be smart. But other positions do need to be like QB. Because they're actually making pre-snap reads and using more of their mental faculties than pure physical.

When it comes to basketball, all superstars are basically QBs. So they need to be able to make pre-read plays and use their brain to capitalize with some rare exceptions like Shaq and Giannis types whose games are based on just physically running you over. I don't think NFL running backs score high on the IQ tests they give them. They're job is to just hit the hole hard and reflexively jump sideways if a guy is diving at them.


Yeah it’s obviously sport/position dependent as well. The more decisions to make, the more important it is.

[RRR3]

Not learning a wide variety of things doesn’t make you unintelligent. Not being able to learn is closer. Simply focusing on one thing isn’t the same. That’s ignorance not inability.
+1. Idk why this is so hard to grasp for so many people. Most NBA players are experts in their field anyways, it doesn’t make you less intelligent because you chose to study basketball over banking or whatever.

[warriorfan]

What a pipe dream. NBA players obviously have some smarts in their 94x50, they play on it every day.. that doesnt make them "highly intelligent people". Nothing of that translates to any real life processes.


:oldlol:

you are both not an athlete and dumb

impressive

[Kblaze8855]

Not really... unless you think WRs are the ones making the reads and relaying the Intel to their QBs. Which is probably a pretty rare thing. The o-linemen and coaches and QBs notice the coverage and call it out. Tyreek just runs whatever the audible is. He barely ever has to use his brain to any sort of extensive degree.


A guy like Tyreek runs a lot of options. He and the QB have to both make the right decision immediately or the ball gets thrown to the wrong place. For first read guys like Tua who they are trying to get to pass immediately so he doesn’t take his? They both have to see the same thing instantly.

Youre not entirely wrong im just saying…they do make reads.

[bdonovan]

Players are most definitely not type 1 thinkers just because they play a fast sport :oldlol:


layman argument.

You've consistently added zero value to the conversation and aren't worth the hassle. Congrats on being #4 on my block list.

[ArbitraryWater]

You've consistently added zero value to the conversation and aren't worth the hassle. Congrats on being #4 on my block list.


Considering no one else pointed out one of the worst attempts at correlating intelligence, that was definitely a lot of value added right there.


Sorry for making you feel dumb cause you regularly try to be insidehoops Andrew Huberman.

[tontoz]

Considering no one else pointed out one of the worst attempts at correlating intelligence, that was definitely a lot of value added right there.


Sorry for making you feel dumb cause you regularly try to be insidehoops Andrew Huberman.


Keep in mind that is the same guy who said markief was just trying to stop the fast break when he slammed into jokic. Last season he said SGA didn't even deserve to be rated at all because he hadn't made the playoffs. He's been saying jokic is overrated for awhile.

Most recently he was making excuses for drays spinning forearm which got him an indefinite suspension.

bdonovan is the crown prince of stupidity.

[ArbitraryWater]

Keep in mind that is the same guy who said markief was just trying to stop the fast break when he slammed into jokic. Last season he said SGA didn't even deserve to be rated at all because he hadn't made the playoffs. He's been saying jokic is overrated for awhile.

Most recently he was making excuses for drays spinning forearm which got him an indefinite suspension.

bdonovan is the crown prince of stupidity.


bdonovan be like

https://vocaroo.com/1fC7cyI4eZoO

[elementally morale]

On average I think they are average. For every dumb start, clearly below average in my perception, I can find a Dirk, a Gasol, a Nash and so on, who are clearly above average in my perception. But as basketball players are just humans playig more basketball than the rest of the population, I think IQ-wise they are where the average person is.

[BarberSchool]

Nope.