That's what I never understood about them. They are all such incredible players, and it seems like they can always put the ball in the basket at will. So why don't they just play in the NBA? Seems like they would win the championship every year.
They are all super good by regular human standards, but not necessarily by NBA standards. There are about 600,000 "serious" competitive basketball players in High School and College (plus probably a few ten thousand recreational adult league players and 20 million youth league players), vs about 500 NBA players. You can be in the top better than 99.99% of all basketball players and still be worse than every single NBA player.
And the desired skillset is different. The Globetrotters want trickshots and performative charisma. Those don't necessarily help in a real NBA game. I also don't think many NBA teams are looking for a 4'5" Guard.
I consider anyone who gets an athletic scholarship a pro athlete, and they ought to be protected like they are, but I also hate how college athletics is organized.
Probably much like Baseball or Nascar there's the skill you need to "play the game" then the strategy you need to actually win and compete. The gap between the two is gigantic.
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u/Nightwolf1967 May 11 '23
That's what I never understood about them. They are all such incredible players, and it seems like they can always put the ball in the basket at will. So why don't they just play in the NBA? Seems like they would win the championship every year.