I didn't say or imply these kids aren't shyt either so take your own advice and listen to what I posted instead if switching it up for your benefit. 99.9% of kids know they aren't going to be in the league only you funny style cats on here run into a bunch of the 0.001% that all want to be ballers but have no chance.
phil pause for a minute. cause this is a serious topic. since we're talking about hood kids(usually black).
i think you are confusing someone killing someone elses dreams vs someone trying to make darn sure you become a success story of some kind.
reality says most of us will never play pro ball because to do so 99.9% of the time its based on you winning multiple lotteries(genetic lottery to be tall/long enough/athletic enough, coordinated enough, agile enough). and then after all that you have to be born with a mind receptive to absorbing basketball moves fairly quickly. and you must start this process early in childhood or else no one will attempt to bring you along as a project unless you're a 6'10+ guy(which is winning the super genetic lottery).
Then after all that is said and done now the hard work comes in.
you cant be 5'5 and work really hard and expect to be in the nba. odds are its not going to happen. thats not a dream killer. thats a reality talk.
sure we have a handful of outliers that made it out of billions that didnt.
but if you work really hard at school, and really hard in college/tech school/trade school. you have a very high chance of making a decent living for yourself and or your family.
this is called using logic.
the part you may be missing phil is this. its actually hurting these young kids to dream about being ball players/rappers, etc. because they wont stop dreaming about it to start doing something that will work today for them and maybe put that stuff to the side or do it on the side like while i go hard at this real stuff that i can achieve. i'm going to do the hoop hard but on the side. i wont put hoop above these other things. since i know i didnt win those lotteries.
now with all that said. when i run into a 6'10 dude just shuffling his feet like he's not sure what to do in life. i'm like YO.. you play ball? if not, i can show you how to get this money. because that kind of height, i can build a bear and make you good enough to at minimum take your talents overseas as a pro and make enough money to come back home to the states if you like and buy yourself a home and have a car paid for. i've seen it done.
if i see some guy thats not super tall but has EXTREME talent but aint getting those nba looks. i'm going to tell you. Bruh you have a few choices.
-Hit the D league, and work for peanuts and pray you make it.
-Take your talents overseas and go get that Paper(but it wont be easy come some of those teams aint paying on time and what not and the culture shock/food, etc is a shock.) stack your chips and come home paid. but make sure you do a little school so you can atleast become a coach if that knee blows out or once you start aging. odds are you dont want to do a regular mans job and i aint mad at cha. odds are you want to stay around hoop until you die. So angle yourself so you can do that. if you have a degree doesnt matter from where. and actual professional or college experience. you have it made. auto coach for a highschool, travelling team, and or small college or assistant at a big college or even at the nba level if you're a helluva coach and just a good dude that people like being around.
3rd- street ball. its not as lucractive as it was during the AND 1 mixtape days. but it still pays and you can make a brand for yourself, while still running clinics for the youth that parents pay an arm and a leg for. its no longer and 1 its now Ballup( i know the dudes who run this too. the main guy is $$$ out but he's been $$ out with old money cause he use to work at universal(music). he's educated. real cool dude but still smart enough to know get ya education on and roll from there. and he plays ball a lot too. but he was too short to turn into a nba pro. he still found a way to stay around entertainment and eventually make his way back to his passion(basketball). but he did it with smarts not the ball itself. thats what this teacher is talking about.
Phil what you dont know about me is that i've been around hoop a long time. I'm not making this ish up. i've lived it because i've balled out with these dudes that were on the verge but just couldnt squeeze in. all of them faught it. and some should have made it if you ask me. but they didnt for some unknown reason. i know for a fact some of these dudes could be a 12th man on the edge of the minnesota roster. i mean come on now. but they didnt make it. its only so many slots to be had. you have to recognize this early. if you do you can still capitalize on the talent you do have. and live a good life.
for example. The professor from And 1 is now with ball up. i know him personally. played with him etc. dude has played overseas . while also playing street ball. he also runs clinics overseas. but because he kept building his brand and understood stop wasting time on a fantasy(the nba since he's short as hell). he now is bigger then street ball itself. everyone knows him. he has a comic book series dropping. etc.
this is how you flip it. i got a nother dude that was just like this kids this teacher is talking about. dude was NICE on the court. money jumper, athletic, wicked handles. baby steph curry. and he had decent height. but he wasnt 6'3. more like 6'1.
but he had the game of a shooting guard. short shooting guards were not the IN Thing when he first got out of high school. short guys were supposed to be able to run a team(floor general). unlike now where guy sscore like crazy and pass a little. he was ahead of his time. not his fault. but he pouted about it all the time. he got some looks. some scouts, blah blah. but he went to a wack high school. coach didnt know how to promote him(some of this stuff is politics folks). he didnt care about school. we told him. go to school tighten up your studies a bit and transfer from a JC to a 4 year D1. he wasnt hearing us. he wasted years doing it his way. DIDNT WORK. then he finally came around to it. went the JC route. messed around and got hurt at the wrong time. still was BSing with the studies and didnt get that D1 look.
I told him it aint over yet. Take your a... overseas and stop crying. he fought that for a few more years. he finally did it. went overseas and made him some $$, not a lot because he was older by then and some what injured. now he's laying up with some side chick while his main chick is mad at him. i pray the brotha is doing something else productive with his life cause he was like a little brother to me.
i got stories like these for days. i've known tall dudes that just didnt make it for unknown reasons.
this other dude is an old head white cat. mad handles, mean jumper. post game. quick.. dude is 6'10 dribbling inbetween 5'8 dudes legs on the break like its nothing. and hitting nba 3's like its easy. why did he not make it? His type of big man was not the IN thing back when he was young enough to be drafted. but he was smart. he had a degree and took his talents overseas early. got his money, came home got a cute chick as his wife, and he's running a sports program.
Steph aint going to tell these kids this^^^^. because thats not his life. he's going to tell him how he worked hard at it and didnt want to stand in his pops shadow and that he wasnt always tall and he was told he wasnt good enough(why he ended up at a small school). all that will do is hype these kids up to be better ballers. not better students. if he tells grownups that same story we will be hyped to be better at other things aside from hoop. kids minds on average dont work that way. especially hood kids that dont have anything.
@ thinking teachers coach for the money. in most cases it works out to being below minimum wage.
Go for it my man.
