How Good Are Bad NBA Players?

EXTREMELY good. I mean, like, amazing.

At our local LA Fitness, we are the “home gym” for a few NBA players during the off-season. Amare Stoudamire came in a couple times, and Mike Bibby was a semi-regular.

But, let’s talk about this guy.

Negele Knight. Unless you lived in Phoenix during the Tom Chambers-Kevin Johnson-Dan Majerle era, you have no clue who I’m talking about, which makes sense, because, in NBA terms…he wasn’t that good. He bounced around the league a bit and was never anything more than a backup point guard who played about 8 minutes a game.

At our gym, full of ex-college players, Negele would run circles around everybody. At 6′1″, he would easily outrebound the 6′6″ guys. He made the small, quick guards look slow and stupid. He shot from several feet outside the 3-pt line.

And you know what? He wasn’t even trying.

I once saw him come in with a bag of McDonald’s, devour a Big Mac, a Filet-o-Fish, a large fries, and a big ass Coke, then go out and humiliate people.

You want to know how good the worst NBA player is? Go into the stadium early and watch warmups. Watch the center that hasn’t played a minute all year stand at the 3-pt line and can shot after shot. Watch the 6′1″ guard jump high enough so his head clears the rim. Watch how effortlessly they make jump shot after jump shot, sometimes while talking to the person next to them, without even looking at the rim.

Another example:

Jimmer Fredette is a basketball player who averaged 6 point per game in his career and bounced around the league.

But yet when he didn’t make an NBA roster, he went to China. In this China Basketball League he scored 73 in a game and averages 36.9; that is insane.

So a guy who could barely make an NBA team, goes to China and averages almost 40 ppg. This China league is still elite compared to random pick up league and stuff. I’d venture to say that this guy or really any other nba player (even the worst ones) would probably score around 60 or 70 effortlessly on a bunch of normal dudes playing in a pickup game.

These guys are INSANELY good.

(which really makes the fat dude in the stands shouting “You suck!” look pretty bad….)

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