keccers
@keccers.eth
You have to be born on third to achieve anything these days “It’s getting too expensive for some kids to even play, and the pressure to be perfect takes away the love for the game,” Dončić told me. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/heir-ball-how-the-cost-of-youth-sports-is-changing-the-nba
7 replies
0 recast
16 reactions
Drew Volpe
@drew
How much has changed vs the past? The Williams sisters were raised to play tennis starting at 4 by a former pro father. Messi needed growth hormones when he was 13 which were paid for by FC Barcelona when he joined their academy. Kobe was groomed from the time he was a toddler by his father who was a pro. Magnus Carlsen skipped school and started training w/ a coach at 9.
1 reply
0 recast
2 reactions
keccers
@keccers.eth
“In 2009, ten players in the league had fathers who’d played for N.B.A. teams; this past season, there were thirty-five.” Moving from “being born on third helps but there are other ways in” to “you have to be born on third”
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Drew Volpe
@drew
Those don’t feel apppreciably different to me. It’d been true for a long time that if a kid doesn’t have elite genetics and isn’t training from when they’re little, they have zero chance of being a pro in a major sport. Maybe it’s worse but it’s: 0.000001% vs 0.0000001%
2 replies
0 recast
1 reaction
Drew Volpe
@drew
I also don't think that's a bad a thing. I feel like our culture pushes the idea that if you work hard enough you can do anything you set your mind to, which is complete nonsense. If you're 5'2" and blind, you have 0 chance of making the NBA, no matter how hard you work and how much "grit" you have. My son (short, no explosive athletes in his family, ...) also has 0 chance of making the NBA. And that's 100% ok. There's a lot of things he's good at and my job as a parent is to help him cultivate those things.
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
keccers
@keccers.eth
There are plenty of abled kids who will never get the chance to even try I think more is the point I would reserve a critique like this for college
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
