this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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I've heard the exact same thing said about TMac over the years. I don't know whether it's true or not, and the only ones who can actually answer that is themselves. I will say though, when it comes to pure talent, TMac and Vince are easily up there for players who didn't live up to their potential, which is pretty crazy considering how good their careers were.
Lol this discourse is always funny because players like T-Mac and Vince definitely put in more work than 90% of the population at their respective occupations
Just that we have people like Kobe that set the precedent of Mamba Mentality and never taking a second of the day off to the point where he’s getting 4 hours of sleep
I mean the results showed, but 99.9% of people are not working that hard
Which doesn’t make them lazy either, they’re just not batshit crazy like Bean
I don't think the discourse was ever meant as disrespect to either, but that their potential was so insanely high that even with above average effort even by NBA standards, they couldn't reach it. That's more of a testament to how insanely talented they were.
T-Mac was arguably the best player in the world at 23 years old. 23. He was averaging 32, 6, 5, 2 and 1 in a god awful Orlando team that opposing teams could guard by just.... doubling T-Mac. The same T-Mac who still scored 32 a game.
His true peak, barring injuries, would've probably been 2/3 years after that. He was absolutely unreal. Especially for a league that scored much less than nowadays.
VC apparently (i believe i've heard him himself say it before) was a bit of a victim of getting too much hype, too early, and kinda coasted on his natural talent the first few years of his career. Which makes it absolutely insane that he put up the numbers that he did.
I honestly think the two are the single most naturally talented players (Behind LBJ) to ever enter the League, both had really fantastic careers and were amongst the top five players in the league for a bit (T-Mac was definitely THE best for a minute) but their careers could've been that much better if injuries weren't a thing and if they had the work ethic someone like Kobe had (Again, not meant as a knock to them, but funnily enough when you're that talented you have to put in even more effort to reach your full potential).
No one is interested in whether they put in more work than some random at Taco Bell or some booze hound faking his hours to get more beer money.
What’s the point in even considering that?
If someone is blessed by genetics with a level of physical talent that outpaces 99.9% of the general populace is everyone supposed to be impressed that they beat out 99.9% of the general populace by basically not doing drugs to the point of ruining themselves or not committing a crime that got them put in the system?
Being born talented and not fucking it up isn’t a positive it’s just not a negative.
If a guy born into the 99.9% of athletes decides to coast I won’t say he shouldn’t do that but I also wont lie and say he didn’t coast or couldn’t have been better.
Kobe wanted to meet his max potential, approximate quote was he wanted to squeeze out all of the juice he had.
If Vince wanted to be elite while putting in professional level of effort but not give 90 hrs on an expected 40 hr work week it doesn’t make him bad. But let’s not pretend it isn’t what it is and compare him to “90% of the population”.
Also stupid of a McGrady and Carter not to have Shaq as teammate. They didn't want it enough
Not saying he didn't work hard, but folks gotta also realize a lot of that is marketing and hype and narratives built around people. We didn't hear about "mamba mentality" when kobe was trying to rap and shit.
When ever someone boast about being sleep deprived because he works too hard he's bullshiting, especially for athletes. How you gonna train hard if you don't give your body proper rest to recover.
There's a correlation between lack of sleep and cancer. I've always found it odd people boast about no sleep and able to work.
Sure you can get tons of shit done but when is over get ready for the diseases that will ravage your body when you retire.
Yep, Shohei ohtani says he sleeps like 9 hours a day and take naps during the afternoon to keep his performance at a high standard. And he's probably the greatest two way baseball player ever at this point with no exaggeration.
Aren't they related too?
Cousins
Very distant cousins though. Like it took Tracy's grandmother to recognise a very distant familial connection that technically meant they're related.