is there a genius-level NBA player?

[ILLsmak]

Bill Bradley was a Rhodes Scholar, and attended Princeton and Oxford.

yeah I mean making it to the Senate is kind of a big thing.

I don't like this question because it seems to imply that it takes more 'genius' to be good at math than it does to be good at basketball.

Of course, there are different kinds of intelligence, and pure athleticism or what we could argue is kind of like savantism in a lot of bball players is enough to get by even at the NBA level, but one can express their genius in basketball just like they could at ballet.

You'd have to look at their decision making, what they saw of the whole picture (each player being a variable) and how far they could read ahead. Of course, moving your body and assessing the emotional state (shook, ready to shoot, etc) of each player is a part of intelligence, too.

It could be someone who rarely gets put in the position to showcase this level of intelligence because, all in all, the NBA values people who fall in line and geniuses... generally don't. It also could not come out later, for instance let's assume Phil Jackson is a genius.

I'm sure there has been a genius level NBA player because odds. If dude's IQ is 145 (and that's all you're going by) we're talking maybe what... 1 out of 1000 intelligence? Adjust for the fact that it's not a random pick of people and I still think there are people that have been in the NBA with that level of intelligence. May not have written papers. Judging intelligence by only accomplishments is arguably more short sighted than judging it purely by test scores.

-Smak

[IGOTGAME]

Jeremy Lin is probably #1 among NBAers, but probably still not at a strictly genius level, although Harvard doesn't offer sport scholarships. This football guy is an exception among sportsmen.

Lin got a 3.0 from Harvard in Econ. That is not a good GPA from Harvard, it is bottom 10%. If he wasnt a basketball player he wouldnt have gotten into Harvard and his performance there was poor.

I severely doubt he is #1.

Matt Bonner graduated with a 3.96 from UF. That is more impressive than a shit GPA from Harvard. Lin's GPA is so bad that people would actually be concerned about it in interviews, you really have to try to less than B+ grades at Harvard.

[ralph_i_el]

yeah I mean making it to the Senate is kind of a big thing.

I don't like this question because it seems to imply that it takes more 'genius' to be good at math than it does to be good at basketball.

Of course, there are different kinds of intelligence, and pure athleticism or what we could argue is kind of like savantism in a lot of bball players is enough to get by even at the NBA level, but one can express their genius in basketball just like they could at ballet.

You'd have to look at their decision making, what they saw of the whole picture (each player being a variable) and how far they could read ahead. Of course, moving your body and assessing the emotional state (shook, ready to shoot, etc) of each player is a part of intelligence, too.

It could be someone who rarely gets put in the position to showcase this level of intelligence because, all in all, the NBA values people who fall in line and geniuses... generally don't. It also could not come out later, for instance let's assume Phil Jackson is a genius.

I'm sure there has been a genius level NBA player because odds. If dude's IQ is 145 (and that's all you're going by) we're talking maybe what... 1 out of 1000 intelligence? Adjust for the fact that it's not a random pick of people and I still think there are people that have been in the NBA with that level of intelligence. May not have written papers. Judging intelligence by only accomplishments is arguably more short sighted than judging it purely by test scores.

-Smak

well said