What is talent? (Vince Carter related)

[Toizumi]

Some people are physically gifted and that's a talent..

There's something more important though.. most NBA players have been playing from a very young age. When kids practice (in any sport, at every level) there are always 1 or 2 that stand out. In some cases they just practice harder and put more effort into playing the game.. but in other cases they just have 'it' - They have great courtvision and they can find the open man or they know how to position themselves for the rebound. They just pick up things quicker than the other kids or excel in some parts of the game. This is talent.

Why is a player like Love or Howard already a great rebounder when he enters the league? They worked on their rebounding from a young age, yes.. but a lot of players have right? They also have the physical attributes and a feel for where to position themselves. More so than other kids, players. They just have 'it'. Rebounding is one of their talents.
Talent alone will not get you that rebound though, you have to fight for that board.. Effort, determination and hard work is very important too.

Vince has all the talent in the world. He's physically gifted, has a good feel for the game. He could (can) do it all... at a high level too. We all know it.. seen it. right? Something is just not there though, the last piece is missing and it's the determination, the confidence, something. But the talent was definitely always there.

[elementally morale]

Are you guys sure that a certain mindset cannot be regarded as talent? After all, not all mindsets are teachable, especially after a certain age.

[miamiandorlando]

ay ya dont get it but its okay brah. imma explain it to ya.

Everybody got raw talent for everything brah, just not in the same amount. Even da worst singer has talent to sing, just not as much as mariah carey.

sweet avey

[Toizumi]

Are you guys sure that a certain mindset cannot be regarded as talent? After all, not all mindsets are teachable, especially after a certain age.

wiki

Talent means the skill that someone has quite naturally to do something that is hard

Going by that definition, I'd say yes, having discipline is a talent. Staying disciplined is hard for most people, but some just have it in them... It can be taught, but only to a certain extent.

[zORi]

Talent I would say is the ability to do some things exactly how they are supposed to be done, and do so naturally. Whether it's with effort or not, practice or not, that's not so important IMO.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

[me_]

To me_, talent is when a guy picks up a basketball with no practice and kicks another guys ass in a 1v1. Skill is when that guy practices enough to come back and beat the first guy

Also, you can be a naturally gifted shooter. Or you can develop a nice shot by working hard and practicing.

[DCL]

talent is having the natural ability to do certain things that most regular folks need years of training to acquire. heck, maybe they might train their entire lifetime and still never come to that understanding. but a talented person just gets it somehow rather quickly. kinda like singing or drawing or playing sports. some kids are just so far beyond their years and you know they haven't even lived long enough to understand the process but somehow they got a natural gift. practice may had played a certain role in helping make them become better, but they had extra mental/intellectual advantages in the first place.

[elementally morale]

BUMP

It's an old thread but there are always new ideas.

How would you define talent?

[andremiller07]

Talent to me is not athletic ability and things you can easily work on, but what comes natural to you, being able to do instinctive things that not many others can.

I look at it if you take away a player athletic ability and that player can still be very good due to a natural feel for the game and solid skills than I consider him to be talented.

E.g. Andre Miller is highly talented, the guy moves at a snail pace, has no jumpshot and can do just about whatever he wants on the floor due to a good feel for the game, understanding of how to use his body and a amazing ability to get into gaps.

Ginobili is another one, magical passes, can get into the lane whenver and just make plays you don't expect.

So in summing up talent to me is the natural ability to do things which does not rely on athletic ability but rather great instincts and feel for the game. Things you can't teach on a basketball floor to someone are talent.

Just because someone is not athletic does not mean they are not talented, in far more cases less athletic people that make it to the a high level in sport tend to be far more talented but obviously are not as good due to athletic ability being a beyond insane weapon.

Thats just my take but I could also see the other view where you include athletic ability as part of talent.

[stevieming]

Personally I think talent is more how a person reacts to a particular sport.

Shaq was made for basketball but he would be crap at football and tennis. His height, power, strength all suit him best for basketball.

Roger Federer has amazing hand to eye coordination and footwork which makes him GOAT at tennis, but he'll probably be no good at weight lifting, doesn't have the core strength, he could weight train for his whole life and probably never win an Olympic medal.

It's about how natural a sport comes to you, how it suits your body and your physical attributes best.

I never played rugby until I was 14, made school team after one game and played at a high level. I had a great feel for the game and scoring, good pace and strength and balance. The game was easy for me, knew what to do with the ball instinctively, how to beat my man and how to defend my man but got a back injury and gave the game up at 21, lost my love for the game from the injury.

I started playing basketball at 17 and been playing it non stop for the last 17 years, I've put endless hours of training and still I am nowhere close in terms of the level I was at in rugby. I am just an above average rec ball player. Even if I rewind and started playing at 7, had all the best training, I still won't be making pro in Europe.

Vince had talent man, he had oodles of physical talent. But he never bothered to tighten his handle, he didn't work tirelessly on his J, he didn't get a post game like Kobe, he didn't bother developing his footwork more like Kobe.

Physically he had more than Kobe, but mentally he wasn't on the same level.

Sometimes I think you can put mental attributes as talent as well. Kobe's drive, determination and dedication is rare.

Just like in tennis, Rafa's tenancity and mental strength. Dude is a mental giant, when the going gets tough he grits it out. Being mentally strong is so important in tennis, you have to consider that a talent!!

Where as in football, it's 90 minutes and you can hide on the pitch. You've got the team to fall back on, but in tennis the game is only over when you beat your opponent and there's no one else apart from you. So in football, being mentally strong is not as important, apart from when you have to take a penalty in pressure situations. (Look at England - pretty much always mental p *******...es)

[Burgz V2]

to me talent is any physical gift that is translated into production. if there is clear physical gifts and no production then that would be just potential.

[Jailblazers7]

I think it goes beyond athleticism. For example, James White and Jeremy Evans are great athletes but I dont consider them talented basketball players.

I think talent always comes to mind for me whenever a player can make something difficult looks easy. Isiah throwing a full court bounce pass, Vince spinning off a defender and gracefully dunking on someone, Lebron's passing out of a double team, Nash's off balance shots and floaters, etc. There is an amount of skill involved when I think about talent.

[eurobum]

Talent is, by definition, "natural" talent. From Oxford Dictionary:

talent |ˈtalənt|
noun
1 [ mass noun ] natural aptitude or skill: he possesses more talent than any other player | [ count noun ] : she displayed a talent for garden design.
• people possessing natural aptitude or skill: I signed all the talent in Rome | [ count noun ] : Simon is a talent to watch.

Funnily enough in terms of etymology it has to do with value of the talented. Makes sense.

ORIGIN Old English talente, talentan (as a unit of weight), from Latin talenta, plural of talentum ‘weight, sum of money’, from Greek talanton.

I digress.

[DatAsh]

Everything you mentioned is something for which a player may have a variable amount of talent.

Athletic abilities could be the result of talent, hard work, or a combination of both. What differentiates one player's talent from another's is how much work that player had to put forth, in comparison with the other player, to achieve the same end result.

The same can be said for any sort of on court "skill", like rebounding, scoring, passing. If two players work the same amount to improve their scoring ability, the more talented player will be the better scorer in the end.

Intelligence is no different.

[Eat Like A Bosh]

I define talent as being blessed with a natural instinct for the game or physical gifts. Something that isn't what you work on hours and hours in the gym, you could think of this like having good genes. Just something that's naturally gifted to you.