Players suffering from a lack of desire?

[Fromthebleachers]

A question to all you out there. a co worker and i were discussing excuses for why certain players like vince carter are the way they are. Is he considered a true superstar ? or is he just a physically gifted athlete thats just lost his desire for the game. I think its a little of both. i also think that the league is watered down with athletically gifted youths that don't quite have the basketball iq to make the best of their NBA careers. You could see it in the global games and you can see it today. maybe they don't have the desire anymore and maybe they're here just to collect a check. i just don't see how someone can make as much as professional players these days and still lack the motivation to go out and play hard for 82 games. and its not just basketball, but its the same in every sport. players forgo the chance to play collegiately for a chance to get paid and perhaps for all the right reasons; but that in turn results in a product thats watered down, due to a lack of experience and injury. theres a lot of reason for all this but i just cant help but wonder why a player of VC's caliber is still yet the same exact player he was years ago it seems.

[ponky]

vince carter's a little whiner, an underachiever and overrated...he got all his kudos from the slam dunk comeptition and has been riding that one-time event ever since

[Fromthebleachers]

yeah thats very true lol, i think we can also say that the people these days are just different. the me me me me me attitude thats been abosrbed into everything these days. peopel want everything given to them without having to work for it. if something can be done with as minimal effort as possible for maximum gain then go for it. the work ethic has been almost totally taken from professional sports. and i just think its only gonna get worse.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I think players like VC know that they aren't going to win a championship so they just go on cruise control and ride out the season. I think it happens a lot more often with players under the age of 30 than we think.

Everyone signs with the lesser franchises for the big $$$

But eventually, as they near the end of their career, they take the paycut to side with a contender

[bdictjames]

VC just doesn't have that consistent jumper to make him a consistent threat in the league. T-mac has one, Kobe has one, Wade and Lebron have it, but VC just doesn't.

[Fromthebleachers]

VC just doesn't have that consistent jumper to make him a consistent threat in the league. T-mac has one, Kobe has one, Wade and Lebron have it, but VC just doesn't.
see i would believe that but these guys have nothing but time to work on their games. theres no reaosn for him not to have developed his game a little bit

[Rip-Hamilton32]

vince carter's a little whiner, an underachiever and overrated...he got all his kudos from the slam dunk comeptition and has been riding that one-time event ever since

i believe hes still riding that 7 footer

[ducks]

even james had that problem this year

[Bob Lanier]

VC just doesn't have that consistent jumper to make him a consistent threat in the league. T-mac has one, Kobe has one, Wade and Lebron have it, but VC just doesn't.
What? Carter has a very good jumpshot; certainly far better than Wade or James.

As entertaining as it is to imagine that each successive generation somehow represents a new low, here have always been losers. And the original poster's solution of making them play with earnestly towel-waving white scrubs in a feeder league where the same psychological and economic pressures exist no matter how the public likes to pretend they don't, is not a viable solution to that basic fact.

[Bob Lanier]

eFG% on jumpshots, courtesy of 82games.com:

Carter .447
Wade .408
James .405

Criticize VC for a wide variety of flaws in his approach to the game, but don't invent flaws in his mechanics, especially when comparing him to some of the least sound superstars in the game. Wade can hit jumpshots with regularity from three spots on the floor, and James's jumper is more broken than Jason Kidd's or Tony Parker's ever were.

[SRJ]

What? Carter has a very good jumpshot; certainly far better than Wade or James.

As entertaining as it is to imagine that each successive generation somehow represents a new low, here have always been losers. And the original poster's solution of making them play with earnestly towel-waving white scrubs in a feeder league where the same psychological and economic pressures exist no matter how the public likes to pretend they don't, is not a viable solution to that basic fact.

Thank you. You said just what I was going to say, but a lot better.

Most guys want to win. A few want to win more than everybody else. A few care less than everybody else - just as it has always been.

BTW, the United States has failed to win international events because the teams have been poorly assembled - the rest of the world has improved to the point where it is no longer possible to out-talent them, and the hierarchy of USA basketball failed to realze this until recently. I'm still not convinced they're doing it correctly, but they're making a much better effort this time around. It's much more of a process now.

[mardigan]

I think their paychecks should give them enough motivation