So ESPN did an interview recently where he came clean on the incident. I cannot believe how dumb some people really are in this day in age...

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"I was like, 'Javaris, I will burn your car, while you're in it. Then we'll find an extinguisher to help ya ass out,'" Arenas said, according to the website. "And he says, 'Well, I'll just shoot you then.' I said, 'Man, I'll bring you the guns to shoot me!'"

Two days later, Arenas brought four guns to the locker room.

"It was about me calling his bluff," Arenas said. "You say you're going to shoot me? Fine, I'll bring you the guns to do it."

Crittenton pulled a loaded gun of his own and cleared the locker room. Ultimately, nobody was injured, but Arenas, Crittenton and the Wizards were never the same again.

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http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24312447/gilbert-arenas-says-gun-incident-trash-talking-not-money

The story on J Crittenton is an interestingly sad and stupid tale that every NBA rookie should read about.

He started off in tough circumstances, but "he transformed from a kid with baggage into an intensely focused young man in everything he did. He was the class president in school, had a 3.5 GPA, and scored almost 1400 the first time he took the SAT. If there was Bible study, Javaris had to memorize more and know more than anyone else, even his school tie and jacket had to be pristine."

His story is interesting to read because of the various connections or stories with Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, OJ Mayo, LeBron, Acie Law even, but he ends up getting involved in LA gangs after he spends time in the NBA. It seems like he knows that this is falling apart, and he doesn't have the ability to say no or stop things.

His story is a tragedy with no redemption at the end. What a waste.

I will always love Agent Zero. No regrets.

I think the argument is that its the easiest because the players have to work the least hard to make it. I don't think he's saying its easy to make the team or that anyone can do it. Its that the players innate ability natural body gifts are what allows them to coast to long and successful careers while guys who work MUCH harder without those gifts are kept out because of how much size and genetics matter.

If you're 7' tall it's easy to make it when you consider the percentage of 7' Americans who have been drafted.

If you're under 6'6 it's nearly impossible.

Ulrich said:

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If you're 7' tall it's easy to make it when you consider the percentage of 7' Americans who have been drafted.

If you're under 6'6 it's nearly impossible.

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The average height in the NBA is 6'7"

I'm not really sure why you quoted me on that.

Because I don't agree.

You're saying that if you are 7' tall it's "easy to make it" but if you measure 1" under the NBA average it is "nearly impossible" to make it into the NBA. I think it's very very long odds to make the NBA no matter what height you are

The average NBA height is 6'7" and the most common height is 6'9". There are actually more 6'3" guys in the NBA than 7-footers. 6'4" is the 99+th percentile of men's height, so there aren't that many people (relatively) even that tall in the first place.



Obviously there are far less 7-footers in the world and your chances are higher at 7' than at 6'6" or lower, but I disagree that is "easy" at 7 feet and "nearly impossible" at 6'6" and I think those numbers are going to skew even shorter the way the NBA is evolving. It's very very long odds to make the NBA no matter what height you are, but 7' is not some kind of golden ticket.

You're falling into the base rate fallacy. There are a LOT more 6'5 men than 7 footers. I've seen a number of articles over the years saying that if you're 7'+, there's a 15-20% chance you'll play in the NBA. See the link below... that drops to 1 in 8,000 for 6'4 to 6'7 and 1 in 100,000 for 6' to 6'3.

archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/03/sunday-review/so-you-want-to-play-pro-basketball.html

There's an enormous increase in the difficulty of making the NBA as you get shorter.

Ulrich said:

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I've seen a number of articles over the years saying that if you're 7'+, there's a 15-20% chance you'll play in the NBA.

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I wasn't a philosophy major, but what is the flaw called where you base your position on something that turns out to be false or incorrect info, false premise?

That myth has been dispelled in several places and if you really think about it, it is an absolutely ridiculous statement.

The first part of it that is silly is that the total number of 7-footers is an estimate. There is no height database anywhere. There's no way to possibly know that. The dude "surmises" that there are "no more than 70".

Another flaw is that If you check draft express heights (barefoot heights), only 2-3 Americans are truly 7' tall without shoes. So we are talking real height, not Olajuwon give him 2 extra inches for the roster height. Because the rest of Americans aren't being measured with their shoes on.

So the real number of American 7-footers in the NBA is far, far lower than the ones listed at 7' and even then you can't use one number that is totally fudged and then freaking "surmise" another number and then spit out a percentage like it's a fact. The article has a catchy title and is an interesting premise, but it's far from scientific.

No doubt it's easier to make it as a 7-footer (or close to it) than as a 6'3" person but the easy vs. nearly impossible is not accurate, especially for a master logician like yourself.

It's not worth getting upset over.

There's no height database, but the distribution of heights is well understood. 1 in over 125,000 American men is taller than 6'10, which means roughly 1,400 Americans of all ages are "near" 7' tall. Forty-two 6'11+ Americans logged NBA minutes in 2017-2018.

That means that 3% of all Americans over 6'10 are current NBA players. Given that the average NBA career is around 5 years long but the average American male lives for many times that, it's safe to say that far more than 3% of Americans over 6'10 will log minutes in the NBA at some point.

About 44 NBA players are 6'5, but about 1.2 million Americans are 6'5, which comes out to less than 4/10 of a percent... it's nearly 100x harder to make it at 6'5 compared to >6'10, and the numbers only get worse as men get shorter: there's only one NBA player of average height or below compared to 88 million American men.


We can argue over exact break points and measurement methodology, but the odds change by orders of magnitude as you go from 7' to mid-6' to average height. I'm not sure why it's controversial that being tall is a massive advantage to get in the NBA.

I'm not upset about it I'm just making fun of you for being douchy & using formal logic terminology.

I don't think anyone in the history of disagreements ever pulled out "base rate fallacy" and expected that they were going to get a "oh thank you for clearing that up for me" in reply.

I don't disagree totally with what you're saying especially the obvious truth that it's easier to make the NBA if you're taller than if you're shorter. I'm still just disagreeing with the original statement you made, which is that it's a piece of cake if you are very tall and almost impossible if you're not... which is at best an exaggeration and at worst simply wrong.

Fair enough, but since we have decided that 7 foot really means around 6'10" or taller, why don't you take a look at the history of Texas A&M basketball and see how many players 6'10" or taller have played a minute in the NBA. The answer is DeAndre Jordan Out of maybe 20.

Consider that these were relatively elite athletes compared to the standard non-athlete of that height and yet the majority of them didn't get a whiff of the NBA. Then go tell them how "easy" it is and see what they say.

I'm a little tired of this argument & obviously you're going to say whatever you need to say to be "right". I disagree and I'll just leave it at that.

I'm not judging just observing... if you've Texagged enough you've tangled over some weird stuff. I know I have.

Thread was supposed to be about the Wizards incident and most of it is arguing the ins and outs of the extreme tail event of somebody making it to theNBA.

Kellso said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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You are surprised that the easiest sport in the world has complete idiots and gang bangers

That is what is shocking

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HUH????????

Basketball is the hardest sport to make it to the pros.

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Hence my comment that it is the easiest sport in the world to play

There is nothing hard about basketball
You are either gifted it or not

This ain't football soccer hockey or even swimming

Basketball is literally the easiest sport to learn and play

Guitarsoup said:

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ATM9000 said:

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What a weird ****ing argument you guys are having.

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It would be less weird if you were over 7' tall.

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Harry Dunne said:

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I'm not upset about it I'm just making fun of you for being douchy & using formal logic terminology.

I don't think anyone in the history of disagreements ever pulled out "base rate fallacy" and expected that they were going to get a "oh thank you for clearing that up for me" in reply.

I don't disagree totally with what you're saying especially the obvious truth that it's easier to make the NBA if you're taller than if you're shorter. I'm still just disagreeing with the original statement you made, which is that it's a piece of cake if you are very tall and almost impossible if you're not... which is at best an exaggeration and at worst simply wrong.

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It's obvious he was saying that making it to the NBA when you are close to 7 feet tall is very easy, compared to how hard it is to make it as a pro in other sports. And that's a fact, so there is nothing to argue about. He wasn't saying that making it to the NBA as a 7 footer was easy in general.

MookieBlaylock said:

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Kellso said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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You are surprised that the easiest sport in the world has complete idiots and gang bangers

That is what is shocking

---

HUH????????

Basketball is the hardest sport to make it to the pros.

---

Hence my comment that it is the easiest sport in the world to play

There is nothing hard about basketball
You are either gifted it or not

This ain't football soccer hockey or even swimming

Basketball is literally the easiest sport to learn and play

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Only if you are 7ft tall.

Since there are only 70 7fters on the planet, how many do you think are complete idiots and/or gangbangers? Can they be mutually exclusive? If the answer is even 1 you may be on to something....

Also, soccer is by far the easiest game to learn and play. The only thing that makes soccer hard is your opponents. Americans think soccer is hard, but most people in the world come by the game naturally.

AG@RICE said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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Kellso said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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You are surprised that the easiest sport in the world has complete idiots and gang bangers

That is what is shocking

---

HUH????????

Basketball is the hardest sport to make it to the pros.

---

Hence my comment that it is the easiest sport in the world to play

There is nothing hard about basketball
You are either gifted it or not

This ain't football soccer hockey or even swimming

Basketball is literally the easiest sport to learn and play

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Only if you are 7ft tall.

Since there are only 70 7fters on the planet, how many do you think are complete idiots and/or gangbangers? Can they be mutually exclusive? If the answer is even 1 you may be on to something....

Also, soccer is by far the easiest game to learn and play. The only thing that makes soccer hard is your opponents. Americans think soccer is hard, but most people in the world come by the game naturally.

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LOL. Any sport that involves kicking is going to be harder to learn than one where you have to throw things (since, you know, that's how we evolved). Football is the easiest sport to learn because it leans more on raw athleticism over skill sans the QB position. It's why we suck at soccer even though we have the "best athletes"....skill trumps being able to run fast or jump high.