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Unliked the British synth-pop trio of the 1980s, the basketball Thompson Twins really are identical twins:
The older twin Amen XLNC Thompson is 6’7″ 200 pounds and went #4 in the NBA draft. The younger twin Ausar XLNC Thompson, 6’7″ and 205 pounds, went #5.
Lots of Nature and Nurture in the Wikipedia write-up of Amen:
Thompson was born to Maya Wilson and Troy Thompson and raised in San Leandro, California. His identical twin brother, Ausar, was born one minute after him; they share the middle name “XLNC” (pronounced excellence) which was bestowed on them to convey a sense of power. Thompson’s older brother, Troy Jr., played college basketball for Prairie View A&M. His uncle, Mark Thompson, represented Jamaica in 400 meter hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He and Ausar began training for basketball under the guidance of their father by age seven and drew inspiration from LeBron James. The twins were homeschooled in sixth and seventh grade to focus on basketball.
Entering eighth grade, Thompson and his family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida so that he and Ausar could play high school basketball one year early at Pine Crest School. … After his junior year, Thompson held offers from Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Arizona State and Kansas, among other programs, before deciding to not play college basketball. … On May 25, 2021, Thompson signed a two-year contract with Overtime Elite (OTE), a new professional league based in Atlanta with players between ages 16 and 20. He joined the league with his brother Ausar, bypassing his final year of high school and college, because he felt that it would prepare him best for the NBA.
In my 2022 review of the self-help book from data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life, I outlined his method of estimating how important genes are in each sport:
Stephens-Davidowitz has a clever way to estimate how genetically determined success is in different sports: What proportion of siblings at the highest level are identical twins? For example, the NBA has had ten pairs of twins in its history, with at least nine pairs being identical. Of all the fraternal twosomes in NBA history, 11.5 percent have been identical twins, a very high fraction. If one identical twin is good enough to make the NBA, it appears the other has over a 50 percent chance of making it too. The author guesstimates that genes determine 75 percent of basketball success.
Not surprisingly, considering how dependent basketball success is upon height, which these days is overwhelmingly genetic in origin, that makes basketball one of the four sports where genes matter most.
The most genetically influenced sport is track and field, where an astonishing 22.4 percent of all Olympic same-sex siblings have been identical twins.
Next are wrestlers, where 13.8 percent of Olympic brothers have been monozygotic twins, followed by 12.4 percent of rowers, such as the 2008 Olympian Winklevoss twins who are jointly played by Armie Hammer in the movie The Social Network. When considering suing Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea for what became Facebook, one suggests giving the Zuck an old-fashioned thrashing instead. After all, he reasons, “I’m 6′ 5″, 220 pounds, and there’s two of me!”
In contrast to twin-rich basketball, only 1.9% of major league baseball brothers have been identical twins. An identical twin of an MLB player has only a 14 percent chance of making the big time. According to Don’t Trust Your Gut, baseball skill is only about 25 percent genetic.
The latest baseball twins (and the first since Jose and Ozzie Canseco in the early 1990s) are relief pitchers Taylor and Tyler Rogers. Oddly, while Taylor is a conventional power-pitching lefty with a 96-mile-per-hour sinker, soft-throwing righty Tyler only made it to The Show by learning how to pitch submarine-style. His fastball averages merely 83 mph, but he has a weird slider that breaks up rather than down. Evidently, even identical twins aren’t always terribly similar.
My guess is that while pitching potential is fairly genetic, pitching accomplishment is highly contingent on random arm injuries.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Vietnamese
Meanwhile back at the ranch
She has a GoFundMe because mo-nay.
In an earlier post questioning why golfers’ careers don’t last as long as previously, I commented on the fact that children are forced to specialize in sports at an earlier age.
The Thompson twins are a good example of this. “Homeschooled in 6th and 7th grade,” for all intents and purposes means these two boys have had no education, and done nothing but focus on basketball since they were 10 years old. Even if they are have no success in the NBA, rookie contracts guarantee them somewhere around $20 M, so by that means this approach has been very successful.
Still, am I the only one that finds this disturbing? I can remember when people criticized the Eastern Bloc because those countries took promising athletic children away from their families at a young age and forced them to specialize in sports. Aren’t we getting close to this in the US?
All those kids (and parents of kids) who don't become pro athletes. All that time, money, and effort spend for nothing. They sacrificed decades of their life, with nothing to show for it.
For every pro athlete who makes it in a major league sport, you can bet there are 100 other individuals who fell a bit short.
Then you have to factor in all the injuries incurred, many life long.
Even pro athletes typically only play for a few years and make a few million. Only a small percentage get to be super stars. How many Tom Bradys are there?Replies: @Truth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_brothers
They are the all time record men’s tennis doubles team.
Cried Lindsay Graham whilst waltzing through the entrance of the Kalorama house managed by CIA assets.
Man, if you were gonna link a Thompson Twins song, really thought this one was more I-Steve appropriate:
Also, I watched the twins Thompson in their interviews during the draft. Pleasant enough fellas, they seem grounded and ready for their opportunity. Easy to root for, in other words. Couldn’t help but notice most of the young men last night had a father present for their interviews, too.
The ghetto kid from Brooklyn from the hardscrabble background is pretty much a part of the past.Replies: @Thomm
Okay, that isn't real wrestling,* just professional. Whence the photo-- "When will it ever end?":Pro Wrestling Is Fake, but Its Race Problem Isn't*Note the costume. Whether or not the law is a ass, Truth seems to be!
Will they get identical tattoos? Is “artistic” taste genetic?
Within a year or two, they will both likely be so thoroughly NBA-ized that I will be unable to stand watching them play. I saw one dual interview (disclosure – – only one.) It suggested that they are both off to a solid start in that regard.
The Thompson twins are a good example of this. “Homeschooled in 6th and 7th grade,” for all intents and purposes means these two boys have had no education, and done nothing but focus on basketball since they were 10 years old. Even if they are have no success in the NBA, rookie contracts guarantee them somewhere around $20 M, so by that means this approach has been very successful.
Still, am I the only one that finds this disturbing? I can remember when people criticized the Eastern Bloc because those countries took promising athletic children away from their families at a young age and forced them to specialize in sports. Aren’t we getting close to this in the US?Replies: @Steve Sailer, @JohnnyWalker123, @MGB
Tiger was seriously considering quitting golf to try to become a Navy SEAL in 2006-2008. His fractured leg during his amazing 2008 US Open victory was due to training with the SEALs. He was sick of golf after 30 years.
Nicklaus had a saner boyhood playing lots of other sports.
And Nicklaus is extraordinary successful in the terms of my previous comment. He's had a long and successful marriage to Barbara with I believe 5 children, who in turn have produced a passel of grandkids--20+. (If I didn't know better, I'd think his last name was Romney.) He's been quite successful in business and some of his sons and son-in-laws are, I believe carrying on those ventures. In reproductive fitness you'd have to give him an "A".Replies: @HammerJack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEwy1as78E
Also, I watched the twins Thompson in their interviews during the draft. Pleasant enough fellas, they seem grounded and ready for their opportunity. Easy to root for, in other words. Couldn't help but notice most of the young men last night had a father present for their interviews, too.Replies: @HammerJack, @Truth, @ScarletNumber, @Reg Cæsar
When millions of dollars are on the table, fathers materialize out of the woodwork!
Nicklaus went to Ohio State on a football-basketball scholarship…But Woody Hays told his father he should stick with golf…
Looks like Mr. Thompson has been extremely successful in executing his plan for his boys.
The question remains though how successful with will be in terms of the long term future of his family?
It would be interesting to see data on # of children of athletes in various sports. And further the quality of the lives of those children–stable marriage, # of children, staying out of jail, income, IQ, health, etc.–and see that normed against their athlete dad. (I say “dad” because while female athletics through college–find a quality guy–is probably beneficial, I’m pretty sure professional athletics for women is a reproductive fitness loser.)
For instance, former Seattle SuperSonic Shawn Kemp is reported to have a passel of kids from a passel of different women. I’m pretty sure the quality of those kids is generally low because Kemp himself is a doofus. But are they better or worse than dad? Is being a basketball star basically a great way to stick your dick into a lot of loser women? Even controlling for race? My suspicion is that generally “yes”, but that those a bit smarter and diligent should be able to use their status to actually mate pretty well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEwy1as78E
Also, I watched the twins Thompson in their interviews during the draft. Pleasant enough fellas, they seem grounded and ready for their opportunity. Easy to root for, in other words. Couldn't help but notice most of the young men last night had a father present for their interviews, too.Replies: @HammerJack, @Truth, @ScarletNumber, @Reg Cæsar
Practically all NBA players are middle class, or in the example of white players, upper-middle class.
The ghetto kid from Brooklyn from the hardscrabble background is pretty much a part of the past.
Take note of Eden Fines :
https://youtu.be/2nS-LA0GjVk
She has the right last name, since she is in fact quite fine.
She is a fashion model who is Israeli and speaks Hebrew. But there is a good chance she is an Octoroon or even Quatroon with Ethiopian ancestry, since Ethiopian Jews are more numerous in Israel than anywhere else.
Needless to say, she could be presented in the context of certain questions.Replies: @Truth
Doing a variety of things–and this includes not being a complete school nerd but doing sports or outdoorsy stuff–is goodness. What used to be called “well rounded”.
And Nicklaus is extraordinary successful in the terms of my previous comment. He’s had a long and successful marriage to Barbara with I believe 5 children, who in turn have produced a passel of grandkids–20+. (If I didn’t know better, I’d think his last name was Romney.) He’s been quite successful in business and some of his sons and son-in-laws are, I believe carrying on those ventures. In reproductive fitness you’d have to give him an “A”.
The important point was that Tiger was so burnt-out and so stressed by family issues that he reached for alternatives, so thanks for that. But, to quibble, regarding training “with,” this was very controversial. Was he actually training “with” the SEALS or was he manly independently doing SEAL-type training on his own? Excuse me, gotta go and take a nice long icewater bath. Just kidding.
“Bring me twins of coulor!”
Cried Lindsay Graham whilst waltzing through the entrance of the Kalorama house managed by CIA assets.
In gymnastics there were the Hamm twins, Paul and Morgan. Paul was better, but Morgan was good enough to make the 2004 Olympic team along with Paul, and come away with a team silver medal.
And Nicklaus is extraordinary successful in the terms of my previous comment. He's had a long and successful marriage to Barbara with I believe 5 children, who in turn have produced a passel of grandkids--20+. (If I didn't know better, I'd think his last name was Romney.) He's been quite successful in business and some of his sons and son-in-laws are, I believe carrying on those ventures. In reproductive fitness you'd have to give him an "A".Replies: @HammerJack
This is what American colleges used to select for until it became clear that this wasn’t working to the benefit of a certain tribe. So “merit” became redefined as whatever the tribe happened to be good at. Nerdy stuff mainly. Definitely didn’t include character, honor, fair play, athletics, much less leadership qualities.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_virtues
“thrashing”
Too much limey-loving castle influence. Please rewrite your post using the American vernacular: “ass-kicking.”
I notice far fewer kids playing basketball lately.
Hold me now!!!
Of course, you mentioned the band but forgot to mention the ORIGINAL Thompson Twins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_and_Thompson
Blacks have twins about twice as often as whites. (That’s one of the data points in Rushton’s r-K evolution hypothesis). Just sayin’
The more human the sport the less genetic the component. I both rowed crew and played baseball in high school. I didn’t like rowing much. I liked being out on the still water at 5AM with the city slowly waking up around me (I rowed on Lake Union in Seattle past the houseboats with a view of the skyline) but the sport itself is monotonous, boring and gruelling. Baseball on the other hand was always alive, full of the unexpected, and required actual thought. When rowing, the unexpected involves an oar launching you out of the boat with a blow to the gut and the force of eight big guys behind it.
The best program in college wrestling is Penn State, because their coach, Cael Sanderson, encourages what someone else here called "well-roundedness" and also makes the sport as fun as possible for athletes.Replies: @Dutch Boy
Basketball is a great sport, but it’s been crippled by dumb rules, especially the shot clock and the 3 point line.
In addition to being completely arbitrary (why is it okay for someone to stand at the 3 point line indefinitely but not okay for someone to have half a foot in the lane for 4 seconds? nonsense), the 3 point line has made the game almost unwatchable. This was probably inevitable.
But the shot clock is worse. It was designed to stop extreme events, but, in reality, the 42 states with no shot clock in high school basketball have average scoring the same as other states. The NCAA tournament does not have higher scoring with the shot clock, but it’s become way less interesting than it was when it had no shot clock. All the shot clock ultimately does is make offense less good in exchange for stopping what are really just rare and extreme events. And if diversity is our strength, then why aren’t low-scoring (rare) basketball games okay?
Nevertheless, it is possible to judge players from different eras:
10 greatest NBA players of all time
The only 5 players to ever lead the league in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) 5 seasons and/or lead a championship team:
– Wilt Chamberlain
– Michael Jordan
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
– LeBron James
– Shaq
Wilt Chamberlain is by far the greatest player ever and certainly the greatest athlete in recorded history. These others were also awesome. Although LeBron played in an era I find aesthetically horrible and is hard to watch compared to the others.
Then there are the 4 players who came VERY close to leading the league in PER (or leading a championship team) for 5 seasons:
– Bob Pettit
– Larry Bird
– Magic Johnson
– Jerry West
No one remembers Bob Pettit – the Baton Rouge Bombardier!. This guy was an awesome player.
Then there is Nikola Jokic. Nikola Jokic has already become only the third man ever to have 3 straight seasons with a PER over 31. The others were Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Nikola is already my 10th best player ever.
The greatest sport of all, though seldom appreciated, is wrestling. Not everyone who wrestles thinks, but the best certainly do. It is an intensely psychological sport.
The best program in college wrestling is Penn State, because their coach, Cael Sanderson, encourages what someone else here called “well-roundedness” and also makes the sport as fun as possible for athletes.
Coup happening in Russia!
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/6/24/russia-ukraine-live-news-russia-accuses-wagner-chief-of-mutiny
There a number of areas in Russia in which conflicts have emerged between the Russian military and Wagner Group. One source is claiming that this rebellion has “significant internal support.” There is “heavy fight” and military defections. Wagner has basically taken control of Rostov. Putin is nowhere to be found.
Russia’s government may lose control over nuclear weapons.
What will be the impact on Ukraine?
Here’s an interesting report.
Future rocket scientists no doubt!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_and_ThompsonReplies: @HammerJack
Pfft, the only twins worth talking about are Doug & Dinsdale. Definitely fraternal.
Not a big fan of the Thompson Twins. I did however like Sugar Daddy:
I have a thought about the relationship between genetics and athletic success – especially group success and the domination of certain sports by people of some certain racial or ethnic descent.
The issue that comes to mind for most people is the domination of professional basketball in American and the National Football by black athletes. If anything, in the modern atmosphere of earlier identification of talent, earlier specialization and earlier exposure to high-level coaching and high-level training, the extent of black domination of these sports has increased over the decades.
What you would expect to be the consequence of earlier specialization and what not? If any group was cut out to dominate some sport, all of these factors would be expected to increase the domination of that group, not identify a broader spectrum of people able to reach to highest level of talent and performance.
Now let’s move on to the sports where white dominate, like tennis or swimming. Or the field side of track and field Or golf, where whites and a sprinkling of Asians dominate. Why should the continued domination of these sports by whites be attributed to racism? Maybe the failure of blacks particularly to even increase their representation in these sports is due to their inadequacies in the face of the same factors of early specialization and all the rest.
When you have an occasional dominant performer of the outlier race – for example, Larry Bird in basketball, the Williams sisters in tennis, Tiger Woods in golf, Christian McCaffrey at the running back position in the NFL, all it really does is highlight how the sport in question is perpetually dominated by the other race. Woods, by the way, considers himself Asian. The percentage of East and Southeast Asian in his blood quotient is higher than the percentage of black.
What I’m getting at is that it is time to tune out the whining. There are reasons that are not socioeconomic or cultural for why we see what see in world of athletic competition. Where the exception are is pretty obvious. Baseball is a notable one. So is soccer. Here it might make sense to look at the other factors. Especially worth paying attention to is how baseball has successfully outsourced some sign ificant percentage of its player development to one small country in the Caribbean, where they can do things with the boys at an early age which would be illegal in the United States, for example having them live in residential academies which are long on baseball and short on academics and the living conditions are pretty crude.
In addition to being completely arbitrary (why is it okay for someone to stand at the 3 point line indefinitely but not okay for someone to have half a foot in the lane for 4 seconds? nonsense), the 3 point line has made the game almost unwatchable. This was probably inevitable.
But the shot clock is worse. It was designed to stop extreme events, but, in reality, the 42 states with no shot clock in high school basketball have average scoring the same as other states. The NCAA tournament does not have higher scoring with the shot clock, but it's become way less interesting than it was when it had no shot clock. All the shot clock ultimately does is make offense less good in exchange for stopping what are really just rare and extreme events. And if diversity is our strength, then why aren't low-scoring (rare) basketball games okay?
Nevertheless, it is possible to judge players from different eras:
10 greatest NBA players of all time
The only 5 players to ever lead the league in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) 5 seasons and/or lead a championship team:
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Michael Jordan
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- LeBron James
- Shaq
Wilt Chamberlain is by far the greatest player ever and certainly the greatest athlete in recorded history. These others were also awesome. Although LeBron played in an era I find aesthetically horrible and is hard to watch compared to the others.
Then there are the 4 players who came VERY close to leading the league in PER (or leading a championship team) for 5 seasons:
- Bob Pettit
- Larry Bird
- Magic Johnson
- Jerry West
No one remembers Bob Pettit - the Baton Rouge Bombardier!. This guy was an awesome player.
Then there is Nikola Jokic. Nikola Jokic has already become only the third man ever to have 3 straight seasons with a PER over 31. The others were Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Nikola is already my 10th best player ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFTY-6sk3iAReplies: @Truth, @ScarletNumber
Chamberlain wasn’t the best ever. How could he be when he lost to Bill Russell with 3 different teams?
I actually agree with you - Bill Russell was clearly a better overall player than Chamberlain.
I saw Chamberlain’s 1972 Laker team play at Cobo Arena. He shot line drive free throws from three feet behind the line.
He remains the only foul shooter I’ve ever seen who was worse than Ben Wallace and Shaq.
Chamberlain wasn’t even the best player of his era, let alone the best all time.
Not enough money in it.
The Thompson twins are a good example of this. “Homeschooled in 6th and 7th grade,” for all intents and purposes means these two boys have had no education, and done nothing but focus on basketball since they were 10 years old. Even if they are have no success in the NBA, rookie contracts guarantee them somewhere around $20 M, so by that means this approach has been very successful.
Still, am I the only one that finds this disturbing? I can remember when people criticized the Eastern Bloc because those countries took promising athletic children away from their families at a young age and forced them to specialize in sports. Aren’t we getting close to this in the US?Replies: @Steve Sailer, @JohnnyWalker123, @MGB
You know who I feel sorry for?
All those kids (and parents of kids) who don’t become pro athletes. All that time, money, and effort spend for nothing. They sacrificed decades of their life, with nothing to show for it.
For every pro athlete who makes it in a major league sport, you can bet there are 100 other individuals who fell a bit short.
Then you have to factor in all the injuries incurred, many life long.
Even pro athletes typically only play for a few years and make a few million. Only a small percentage get to be super stars. How many Tom Bradys are there?
Herge should sue their XLNCs for copyright?
2 British civil servants that keep appearing in the Belgian Tin Tin series.
Tiger’s fractured leg was due to training with the SEALS? There’s conflicting reports on this and it seems a little on the nose. His agent said this wasn’t the case and Haney had a book to sell.
Don’t believe I have ever watched more than 2-3 minutes of a basketball game–most boring sport ever
Huh? Link?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kl_OjxGQWOc/Tsu3rr-HWNI/AAAAAAAADhU/P3QWL75XpzY/s1600/000sck5r.pngReplies: @Michael Droy
Yes – Thompson and Thomson, not even brothers, just identical 🙂
2 British civil servants that keep appearing in the Belgian Tin Tin series.
https://i.ibb.co/x69HCkY/Screenshot-20230623-184259-Daily-Mail-Online.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/9WvkykB/Screenshot-20230623-184322-Daily-Mail-Online.jpg
She has a GoFundMe because mo-nay.Replies: @Fred Boynton, @ScarletNumber
So, dropped dead because of heart attack or dropped dead because of hail of bullets? Either one is a likely cause of death for a strong, proud black man.
interesting idea, checking twin ratios sport by sport.
another good question is whether twins are inherently worse at everything than singletons, or is it just the case that there are so many more singletons than twins that it’s just a numbers game. the data seems to suggest the former though. it seems like we would have seen an all time great athlete in some sport by now who was a twin, but we don’t, or i don’t think we have anyway.
the body is mostly mechanical, while the brain is mostly electrical. so what we observe is that it is less difficult for twins to reach the highest level of sports. whereas twins almost never reach the highest levels of intellectual endeavor, and are never all time greats. or that’s my observation after checking this stuff for a while.
no science nobel has ever been awarded to a twin. and Ronald Fisher is the only twin i can find so far who was a highly important intellectual. and his twin died.
All those kids (and parents of kids) who don't become pro athletes. All that time, money, and effort spend for nothing. They sacrificed decades of their life, with nothing to show for it.
For every pro athlete who makes it in a major league sport, you can bet there are 100 other individuals who fell a bit short.
Then you have to factor in all the injuries incurred, many life long.
Even pro athletes typically only play for a few years and make a few million. Only a small percentage get to be super stars. How many Tom Bradys are there?Replies: @Truth
Beats the hell out of playing games on the phone 4 hours a day for 14 years.
i used to think the twin achievement thing was due to twins competing with each other in the womb for nutrients. and maybe that is still a factor. but now i think it’s more about twins being born 4 weeks earlier than singletons. that’s a significant factor for singletons, that we’ve measured over millions of people. premature people never completely catch up. they do catch up for practical purposes but not in total – they’re always slightly behind where they otherwise would have been.
so it has to be a factor for twins. every twin in a premature birth. twins measure 1 to 2 points lower on intelligence tests than singletons. and this persists for life. and triplets are born 1 week earlier than twins. wonder if they have even lower intelligence on average than twins.
so if the body is mostly mechanical, and high sport achievement is less difficult in general, then twins can still get to the highest levels of sports. but if the mind is mostly electrical, and high intellectual achievement is more difficult in general, then the reduction in brain development for premature birth must have a huge effect on the upper limits of intelligence. which seems to be the case.
due to fertility drugs, the rate of twins and triplets has increased greatly. which means that we’re getting even more people, but they’re even slightly less smarter. so we’ll see more twin athletes, but zero really smart people coming out of that.
this had to be the worst NBA draft in history. we’ll check it compared to the 2000 draft, but it looks terrible to me. a lot of players here who will probably do nothing, and drafted way too high.
NBA really seemed to close ranks this time. the real 3 time MVP and Finals MVP put up historic numbers, and the league responded with the most african draft ever. ‘but Prime Noticer, the draft is unrelated and the players involved are just coincidental to the previous NBA season.’
oh yeah? how do you explain Drew Timme not even getting drafted then? i don’t like this guy as a player and don’t think he’ll be anything great, but he’s a late first round pick at minimum. instead, the league clearly conspired to make sure he wasn’t even drafted at all. what? that’s ludicrous nonsense. i don’t even think he’s all that good but he’s clearly better than some of the first round picks and most of the second round picks. that’s plain as day.
how could this be about anything other than the NBA closing ranks and trying to defend their turf? they reserve the right to vote for whoever they want as MVP of course, and they’ll give it to the wrong player if they so choose. but they do the same thing with who they decide to not allow to play at all. NFL does the same thing to wide receivers.
"That speaks to how different the college and NBA games have become. One values the back-to-the-basket post; one, partly through analytics and unique defensive rules, does not."
Tsibewe, the player of the year two years ago, didn’t get drafted either, Zach Edey, player of the year last year, didn’t even declare for the draft because he knew he wouldn’t be.
Think about it like this: There are tons of fervent white nationalists with strong opinions here, that could probably reach common ground with a lot of others, does that mean that Unz should give them a contract to write for the site?
“When considering suing Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea for what became Facebook”
Interestingly, the web of accusations and theft in the inception of social networking sites nicely mirrors the connections created by them. To start with, both Zuckerberg and the Winklevii allegedly stole from Wayne Chang, whose i2Hub launched half a year before Wirehog, Zuck’s first site; and several months before ConnectU, the Winklevii’s site. Unlike Zuck, the Winklevii actually partnered with Chang, forming the Winklevoss Chang Group through which i2Hub and ConnectU shared IP and user data. i2Hub quickly reached a virtual monopoly in the student file-sharing space, causing Wirehog to fold; i2Hub would itself close eventually, but for exactly the opposite reason: its success attracted the anger of the RIAA and the Feds shut it down for copyright infringement. Zuck’s parallel venture, Facebook, obviously did a whole lot better, but this led to accusations that Zuck had ripped off ideas and IP from ConnectU (actually, Facebook’s early form, Facesmash, was based on Hotornot.com). When courts forced FB to pay out a $65 million settlement to the Winklevii, Chang then sued them for half the money, alleging that his IP played a key role in ConnectU’s success; court docs note that his ownership in ConnectU alone may constitute a substantive claim to the proceeds. I don’t think Chang won the case, which went on for years, but by then it didn’t much matter: he’d built and sold another company, Crashlytics, for $133 million. One wonders whether he aimed for that figure as it was twice the Winklevii’s $65 million win. As a side note, of all the players in this drama (Narendra, Zuckerberg, Saverin, the Winklevii, etc) he is the only one not profiled in the movie, perhaps because he worked alone.
The best program in college wrestling is Penn State, because their coach, Cael Sanderson, encourages what someone else here called "well-roundedness" and also makes the sport as fun as possible for athletes.Replies: @Dutch Boy
My son was a pretty good high school wrestler and it turned him from a boy into a man (the one-on-one physical confrontations toughen you up quickly).
The Thompsons will need to gain about thirty pounds each to compete in the muscle-bound NBA. Break out the cream and the clear!
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1520280814180880384/Cqt1xwkz_400x400.jpg
https://lsutigerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/06/USATSI_20923101.jpg?w=1000&h=600&crop=1
https://twitter.com/Rileycoop
Apparently moving from Arizona to Louisiana is all it takes!
My own weight is set in stone-- literally. My bathroom scale offers stone as well as pounds and kilos.Replies: @Curle
The local bird cage liner explained the failure to draft college big men thus:
“That speaks to how different the college and NBA games have become. One values the back-to-the-basket post; one, partly through analytics and unique defensive rules, does not.”
If they were identical I assume they both would have been terrified of that giant hedgehog.
He died of teh fatness but they callin’ it a heart attack.
She’ll be along shortly, because complications of diabetes etc.
Both cases will be attributed to white supremacy.
The Thompson twins are a good example of this. “Homeschooled in 6th and 7th grade,” for all intents and purposes means these two boys have had no education, and done nothing but focus on basketball since they were 10 years old. Even if they are have no success in the NBA, rookie contracts guarantee them somewhere around $20 M, so by that means this approach has been very successful.
Still, am I the only one that finds this disturbing? I can remember when people criticized the Eastern Bloc because those countries took promising athletic children away from their families at a young age and forced them to specialize in sports. Aren’t we getting close to this in the US?Replies: @Steve Sailer, @JohnnyWalker123, @MGB
It is disturbing. The only literate draftees from appearances were the two French players. It could just be teenaged jitters being interviewed on national TV, but it was ‘disturbing’ listening to the interviews. And I think it was in reference to the Alabama player, but ESPN had to explain he only transported the gun used in a murder, and was not charged with anything. Comforting.
No making fun of the two otherwise net societal negatives. They play sportsball!!
In addition to being completely arbitrary (why is it okay for someone to stand at the 3 point line indefinitely but not okay for someone to have half a foot in the lane for 4 seconds? nonsense), the 3 point line has made the game almost unwatchable. This was probably inevitable.
But the shot clock is worse. It was designed to stop extreme events, but, in reality, the 42 states with no shot clock in high school basketball have average scoring the same as other states. The NCAA tournament does not have higher scoring with the shot clock, but it's become way less interesting than it was when it had no shot clock. All the shot clock ultimately does is make offense less good in exchange for stopping what are really just rare and extreme events. And if diversity is our strength, then why aren't low-scoring (rare) basketball games okay?
Nevertheless, it is possible to judge players from different eras:
10 greatest NBA players of all time
The only 5 players to ever lead the league in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) 5 seasons and/or lead a championship team:
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Michael Jordan
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- LeBron James
- Shaq
Wilt Chamberlain is by far the greatest player ever and certainly the greatest athlete in recorded history. These others were also awesome. Although LeBron played in an era I find aesthetically horrible and is hard to watch compared to the others.
Then there are the 4 players who came VERY close to leading the league in PER (or leading a championship team) for 5 seasons:
- Bob Pettit
- Larry Bird
- Magic Johnson
- Jerry West
No one remembers Bob Pettit - the Baton Rouge Bombardier!. This guy was an awesome player.
Then there is Nikola Jokic. Nikola Jokic has already become only the third man ever to have 3 straight seasons with a PER over 31. The others were Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Nikola is already my 10th best player ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFTY-6sk3iAReplies: @Truth, @ScarletNumber
Because if you stand there in the key it clogs up the works.
No, the shot clock saved basketball. College games were becoming unwatchable. On March 7, 1982, North Carolina defeated Virginia 47-45 to win the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. This was a team that featured Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, and James Worthy.
Speaking of which, does “38” represent the number of pounds between these two pictures of Riley Cooper? Or is it the number of kilograms?
Tweets by Rileycoop
Apparently moving from Arizona to Louisiana is all it takes!
My own weight is set in stone– literally. My bathroom scale offers stone as well as pounds and kilos.
While the Cansecos are twins from a genetic standpoint, they are an excellent example of what happens when one twin takes steroids and one doesn’t. When they graduated high school, the Yankees drafted Ozzie in the 2nd round of the 1982 draft, while the Athletics drafted Jose in the 15th round.
“Don’t Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life,”
Actually, since genes originate (or gestate) for 9 months (more or less), perhaps it is imperative to actually, you know, do trust one’s gut, for out of it precedes what one can get out of life.
“how important genes are in each sport”
Genes’s importance cannot be fully determined until a person is actually born, and thus yeah, perhaps going (literally) with one’s gut is of the most importance after all.
Also interesting that many, many examples of actual professional athletes do go with their guts, their instincts, during their on field playing. (e.g. * that split second of “knowing” to take a pitch or swing and hit it 400 FT over the outfield wall; deciding at the last possible example of throwing the ball 50 yards to the suddenly open WR for a sprinting TD; sinking the putt 13 feet away to win the PGA championship; etc)
*unfortunately, in split second real time, one cannot consult Bill James’s wisdom on whether or not to take a 2-1 pitch and must decide in real time whether or not to swing. This of course is where a batter’s experience comes in.
So actually trusting one’s gut does play a major factor in life when making key decisions, not just on the sports field, but in life in general. How effective they are at trusting their guts is an entirely different matter.
Sheeeeiiittt!!!
What’s the conclusion about twins and genetic determinism in soccer?
Truth,
I actually agree with you – Bill Russell was clearly a better overall player than Chamberlain.
I saw Chamberlain’s 1972 Laker team play at Cobo Arena. He shot line drive free throws from three feet behind the line.
He remains the only foul shooter I’ve ever seen who was worse than Ben Wallace and Shaq.
Chamberlain wasn’t even the best player of his era, let alone the best all time.
https://i.ibb.co/x69HCkY/Screenshot-20230623-184259-Daily-Mail-Online.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/9WvkykB/Screenshot-20230623-184322-Daily-Mail-Online.jpg
She has a GoFundMe because mo-nay.Replies: @Fred Boynton, @ScarletNumber
Why shouldn’t she have a GoFundMe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEwy1as78E
Also, I watched the twins Thompson in their interviews during the draft. Pleasant enough fellas, they seem grounded and ready for their opportunity. Easy to root for, in other words. Couldn't help but notice most of the young men last night had a father present for their interviews, too.Replies: @HammerJack, @Truth, @ScarletNumber, @Reg Cæsar
The Gap was the fourth song off of their breakthrough album, so perhaps wanted to choose a song we have heard of. Their second song (Doctor, Doctor) was almost as a big of a hit as the first.
or the Tintin characters they were named for…
Thompson and Thomson were unrelated, but doubles, or doppelgangers. Note that the two names suggest different ethnicities– English and Scottish, respectively.
Scottish, or perhaps rather Scots, patronymic surnames are more likely to be based on the whole given name– Robertson, Davidson, etc. English tends to more clipped versions, based on diminutives, probably due to a longer history with them– Hobbs, Dobbs, Dawes, Davis, etc. There are some exceptions, though, Thomson being one, Wilson another.
Some names will be found in more than one group. Wilson can be Scottish or English, Davies English or Welsh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SEwy1as78E
Also, I watched the twins Thompson in their interviews during the draft. Pleasant enough fellas, they seem grounded and ready for their opportunity. Easy to root for, in other words. Couldn't help but notice most of the young men last night had a father present for their interviews, too.Replies: @HammerJack, @Truth, @ScarletNumber, @Reg Cæsar
Nah. Look at what Steve wrote:
What could be more appropriate to wrestling than “Hold Me Now”?
Okay, that isn’t real wrestling,* just professional. Whence the photo– “When will it ever end?”:
Pro Wrestling Is Fake, but Its Race Problem Isn’t
*Note the costume. Whether or not the law is a ass, Truth seems to be!
PED use among NBA players is somewhat uncommon. I definitely remember a few guards who had ludicrously over-sized and over-vascular arms in the 90’s (presumably, forwards and centers are already large enough where there is less compelling reason to use PEDs). But in comparison to football and baseball, there is much less drug use in basketball. And BTW modern training methods are light-years ahead of what they used to be so depending on genetics, you really can build up a lot of muscle sans PEDs.
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1520280814180880384/Cqt1xwkz_400x400.jpg
https://lsutigerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/06/USATSI_20923101.jpg?w=1000&h=600&crop=1
https://twitter.com/Rileycoop
Apparently moving from Arizona to Louisiana is all it takes!
My own weight is set in stone-- literally. My bathroom scale offers stone as well as pounds and kilos.Replies: @Curle
What accounts for the continued popularity of the stringy long blond hair look among white metal heads, some athletes and assorted hippies? Has it ever helped a devotee get laid?
The ghetto kid from Brooklyn from the hardscrabble background is pretty much a part of the past.Replies: @Thomm
Dear Truth,
Take note of Eden Fines :
She has the right last name, since she is in fact quite fine.
She is a fashion model who is Israeli and speaks Hebrew. But there is a good chance she is an Octoroon or even Quatroon with Ethiopian ancestry, since Ethiopian Jews are more numerous in Israel than anywhere else.
Needless to say, she could be presented in the context of certain questions.
Now while that person is certainly comely, I try not to indulge in the habit of internet lust. Surgery and drugs have just about made trannies indistinguishable from real Broads.
...And at this point I don't think your question is even a question anymore. It's been proven.Replies: @Thomm
Athletics and entertainment. That’s all blacks have.
LOL. That’s a lot.
Take note of Eden Fines :
https://youtu.be/2nS-LA0GjVk
She has the right last name, since she is in fact quite fine.
She is a fashion model who is Israeli and speaks Hebrew. But there is a good chance she is an Octoroon or even Quatroon with Ethiopian ancestry, since Ethiopian Jews are more numerous in Israel than anywhere else.
Needless to say, she could be presented in the context of certain questions.Replies: @Truth
Thanks Thomm.
Now while that person is certainly comely, I try not to indulge in the habit of internet lust. Surgery and drugs have just about made trannies indistinguishable from real Broads.
…And at this point I don’t think your question is even a question anymore. It’s been proven.
But the main point here is that her ethno-genetic background is doubly problematic for the core commentariat over here, particularly if we ever wanted to do a future round of posing that question to that group.Replies: @Truth
A grifter begs a GoFundMe when obviously, no one in her family is going hungry; because mo-nay.
I don’t know much about that era: did Chamberlain lose to Russell more because Russell was the superior player or more because Russell had the superior team?
Where do you get your information from? Because it sounds like the extent of your understanding of “PED’S” is anabolic steroids.
For example, Thymosin-beta 4, aka TB500, is a synthetic peptide. Its primary function is to accelerate cellular regeneration in damaged tissue. Using it does not lead to dramatic hypertrophy like anabolic steroids do, but it does drastically shorten recovery time from connective tissue injuries, as well as lessening recovery time in damaged muscles. It is obvious why pro athletes would be interested in this particular substance. It is on the MLB banned substance list.
There are a wide range of peptides and even stem cell therapies are easy to obtain, even by prescription, that facilitate shorter recovery times from injuries and or exhaustion. It’s naive to think NBA players don’t take advantages of these things.
Russell was the superior team player.
Now while that person is certainly comely, I try not to indulge in the habit of internet lust. Surgery and drugs have just about made trannies indistinguishable from real Broads.
...And at this point I don't think your question is even a question anymore. It's been proven.Replies: @Thomm
Yes, it has. That is why I always say that they will never make inroads into mainstream white society.
I’d say a runway model with a classical female appearance can’t really undertake that deception, no matter what they do. This venue is the most stringent of examinations.
But the main point here is that her ethno-genetic background is doubly problematic for the core commentariat over here, particularly if we ever wanted to do a future round of posing that question to that group.
But the main point here is that her ethno-genetic background is doubly problematic for the core commentariat over here, particularly if we ever wanted to do a future round of posing that question to that group.Replies: @Truth
OK, that’s the one we will use as a model for the question next time.
"Black people really are not humans."
"Octoroons are still not humans". Combine those three, and that is the triple-point of psychological collapse for the test subject to whom the question is posed.
When you watch those old tapes on youtube, you can see a point in time , visually, more than once, where the Celtics would start making a run, and Russell would get stronger and Chamberlain would just deflate. He did the same thing against the Knicks when Willis Reed came out of the locker room for game 7.
It’ll be hilarious. With her, I can dial the comedy up to 11.
Remember, around here :
“Jews are not white even if they look white”, and..
“Black people really are not humans.”
“Octoroons are still not humans”.
Combine those three, and that is the triple-point of psychological collapse for the test subject to whom the question is posed.