OT: These Regular Guys Challenged An NBA Player And Instantly Regretted It (Jordan Poole sighting)

That was great. My varsity coach was a former D-1 player and even in his 40s he would torch all of us. I learned real quick how wide the gap was between good high school players and college players. The gap between good high school and NBA is unfathomable. 

Good stuff

When I was at the Air Force Academy one of Notre Dames big time basketball players, Pat(some last name I can’t remember and don’t want to look up), was from the Springs area and was at the Academy gym working out.  My friends and I were playing ball and we asked him if he wanted to join us.  He laughed, said sure, and put on a clinic. This being the academy we were used to playing with D1 athletes(the soccer players were always coveted team-mates when we were down at the gym) but playing with him was eye opening.

We thought we were being nice as he was just hanging by himself shooting buckets, I think it turned out more to be he didn’t want to embarrass us.  Agree with the above poster about the shooting being the craziest part, I don’t think he missed a shot.  Needless to say his team got to 11 pretty quickly.  

Saw this video as well a couple days ago.  It makes sense how good these guys are compared to mere mortals.  I still remember seeing a deep bench guy/walk on on a Carr team play IM football against a bunch of guys who played in HS and just absolutely smoking everyone.  

In Poole's slight defense, he really was a baby in this game.  I'm not surprised he struggled against two guys with developmental years on him.

Haha that's funny!  

Again that's why it's insane to say that they don't play defense in the NBA.  The skill level is that high that they look that they're scoring without much opposition.  The fact that they can sometimes make, a generic rotation player, to say nothing of James Harden, miss a shot is testament to the fact that they do play defense.  If you see, say, a contender like the Sixers wax a scrub team like the T'Wolves by 35, that's basically like the world's 99.995th-percentile basketball team over a 99.902nd-percentile team

Back around 2012-2014ish, I used to play pick up games at the basketball court in a golds gym near Austin.

Former UT player AJ Abrams (he still might be the Big12’s leading 3 point shooter) would be there at least once or twice a week to play and when he played, he’d just torch you from deep. Nobody could guard him. Even when he drove the ball he was like a blur. But that shooting skill was insane.

The skill and athleticism gap is massive between normal humans who are good at basketball and even marginal players at the pro level. 

One of my old pastors was a mid-major all conference POY as a Sophomore. He was a 2nd round pick in 85, signed with Jordan's Bulls but went into preaching instead.  I played against him about 6 years ago, so he was definitely in his 50s and I was early 30's.  He had 4 inches on me and probably 75 pounds but it didn't matter, I think he only scored like 3 baskets in the paint.  He hit almost everything he shot. 

I've also played flag football for about 17 years in Richmond, VA & DC.  I have played against numerous D1 guys and maybe 10-12 former pros. Antwaan Randle-El is fast as shit. He played QB and was running all over the field. He also had a friend with him who was barely a practice squad player.  He didn't have elite speed, but he caught EVERYTHING. 

Another guy I played against a number of times was named Brian Still, for VT WR, played for the Chargers & Falcons for I think 7 years. He wasn't super fast, at age 40 but he ran the crispest routes I'd ever seen, and he would break so cleanly and create separation so effortlessly he made it look easy. And he would accelerate after he had the ball in his hands and there was no catching him.   Everyone would get hyped to cover him because of who he was...guys at the field early, stretching, and talking about shutting him down. It was laughable watching guys who were top notch athletes...guys who "could've been D1 had he not been a knucklehead" types...definitely faster and more athletic than Still, and he would make them look stupid. 

Edit to add:

I almost forgot.  Right after Russell Wilson's year at Wisconsin he was home in Richmond and he pulled up to the field to play.  It wasn't my regular team, I was filling in for a team short on players.  The game before us was a bunch of guys Russell went to high school with. All nerdy looking guys, very little athleticism, the guys you know were out there to spend time with their friends, not to truly be competitive. Russell pulled up in a Mercedes truck...he was shorter than me..."and I'm 6'2 in the program" tall, 6 flat in real life. He came out casually and slung the fucking ball all over the field. Before he showed up, I was going to offer to play with them since they were one short and I wish I had.  Once they started losing he got really competitive and was throwing 35 yard darts into windows that weren't even really there.  As bad as his friends were at football, every pass hit them in the hands and chest..long, short, deep outs, ins, posts...all were absolutely dead on.  It was certainly eye opening and a disappointment playing with a regular guy immediately after that.  At the time I thought it was cool, but didn't think much of it because his draft buzz was not great.  Many said he wasn't an NFL QB, he was inaccurate etc etc and for him to be selected in R3 was surprising, and even more so after he became who he is now.

Celtics legend Brian Scalabrine!

My favorite story is we were playing at the park and Gary Grant fresh off his rookie contract drove up in his new car with Sean Higgins and Anton Joubert in tow.  They split up the players.  We were stuck with Sean Higgins and lost because he would only take 40 foot shots.  Joubert could not hit a shot outside the paint to save his life.  But Gary Grant was a sight to behold.  Even when not taking anything seriously he was like a comic book superhero and we were nothing.

My friend was taking the ball up the court and crossed over on Gary Grant.  He being a mere mortal had time to be proud that he just crossed over on Gary Grant.  I witnessed what happened next in gory detail.  Gary Grant surveyed the scene.  Watched my friend cross and pass him plus read my friends entire life story.  Then Gary Grant idly reached over my friends shoulder and plucked the ball away as if were some toy from an infant.  The filch was so blurringly fast, I could barely comprehend what happened.  My friend continued up the court unaware that he no longer had the rock and Gary Grant had already scored again in some leisurely obscene way.

I'm a far, far below average pick-up player.

I might have a chance against an NBA player if they were forced to play on their knees with one-hand behind their back and blind-folded. Maybe. I'd probably score a point.

Football too.  In the last century I played grad IM football against Tom Slade who was in dental school after being Michigan's quarterback in 1971 and backup to Dennis Franklin in 1972 and 1973.  Slade was not a particularly good passing quarterback for D1 but in IM he looked like a super charged Tom Brady.  I played corner and it was like the balls were being dropped from the sky by God.  I had no chance.  Slade went on to be a dentist in Ann Arbor with the side job of doing color commentary for UM football games on WUOM.  Tom Hemingway did the play by play.  It was a glorious way to listen to UM football.  100X better than what happens today on  the IMG whatever.  

I had the good fortune of playing basketball in Flint with several college, international, and even a few NBA level guys at the end of the 80s/early 90s (also a couple of NFL guys as well, and a guy I watched on TV pitching for the Yankees in the World Series).  Of course we didn't see their best in pick-up ball, but whenever they decided it was time to score or get a stop, that's what happened.  They played the game on an entirely higher plane.

My friend was playing pick up basketball in the gym at Oakland University in the late 1980's.  He was about 6'3" and a good high school player but never played in college.  One day, in walks Vinnie Johnson of the Pistons who wanted to join the pick up game.  I think Vinnie was also 6'3" so at least my friend matched him in height.  Well long story short, Vinnie completely demolished everyone on the court.  During the course of the action my friend got wide open in the paint and went up for what should have been an easy layup and Vinnie came out of nowhere and blocked his shot.  He actually palmed the ball on the block and immediately went the other way with it.  My friend ended up on the gym floor from the force of the block.

My own personal story is playing pick up roller hockey at a parking lot around Elbel Field with Warren Luhning and Jason Botterill.  It didn't go well for me and the other guys challenging them.

My brother in law was a former NBA player, drafted #32 overall in1970's.  When boxing me out, all he had to do was reach out one arm and I was frozen.  The strength of a guy who's 6'7 and solidly built was eye opening.

Like other people have noted, he could hit mid- range open shots all day along.  Actually, he didn't need to be open.  I'm only 6'2, so he just shot over the top of me.

I was in a steam room after a workout once when the Iron Sheik came in and wouldn't shut up with unsolicited lifting advice.

Am I doing this right?

It's not just D1 men players either.  When I was a freshman at Michigan, I briefly dated a girl who was a starter on the basketball team.  Dated her just long enough to play her one-on-one on the playground for kicks.  She housed me.

My wife was a former D3 basketball player as well, and it's all I can do to compete with her when we shoot around in the driveway.  She doesn't miss much and has a quick first step, so guarding her is a challenge.

I've had numerous arguments with male coworkers that I play rec ball with about how good women ballplayers are with these macho weekend warriors insisting that no woman could compete with them regardless of their skill level based simply on the fact that men are stronger than women.  I just roll my eyes and tell them how clueless they are.

The gap isn't just real between College / Pro male players and the rest of us.  It exists just as tangibly between elite women players and the rest of us.  Believe it.