Definining Athleticism, and Correlating Athleticism With Basketball Greatness
In 2007, I wrote Is Steve Nash the Best Athlete in the NBA?, an article that was not just about Nash specifically but rather an examination of how athleticism is thought about and discussed:
Athleticism is often defined very narrowly. In the context of basketball, athleticism is usually understood to refer primarily to explosiveness laterally (quickness) and vertically (jumping ability); in football, athleticism usually is defined by one's performance in the 40 yard dash and in the bench press. However, this kind of thinking leads to a lot of stereotyping and superficial analysis, usually along racial lines--i.e., Larry Bird being praised for his cerebral skills while Michael Jordan is commended for his athletic ability. The reality is that Bird was a phenomenal athlete, possessing superb hand-eye coordination, quickness for a step (a concept that will be explained below) and better jumping ability than most people seem to think; compare his blocked shot totals to those of legendary leaper Dominique Wilkins (Bird has the edge, with 755 blocks in 897 games compared to Wilkins' 642 blocks in 1074 games)--and while Bird did not have the broad jumping ability of a Julius Erving, he was more than capable of playing above the rim to get rebounds and even throw down some dunks (albeit ones that fans would term "generic"), particularly early in his career.
Nikola Jokic's emergence as not only a two-time regular season MVP but also an NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP provides a great opportunity to further explore athleticism in general, and basketball athleticism in particular. In the popular imagination, it seems that basketball athleticism is defined very narrowly, as noted above. The ability to broad jump--in other words, the ability to take off from one spot, soar through the air, and then dunk the basketball before returning to the ground--attracts a lot of attention and praise, and when a basketball player is described as "athletic," that is shorthand for "He can jump high above the rim" or "He can take off from the foul line and dunk." Most NBA players can execute a generic one handed dunk, so even though dunking may be considered an "athletic" move for a non-NBA player it is not a sign of elite NBA level athleticism--but flying through the air and dunking, particularly if the dunk is accomplished over a defender, is considered to be a sign of elite NBA level athleticism. To some degree, straight-line speed--particularly when dribbling a basketball--is also considered to be a sign of elite NBA level athleticism; a player may be described as "the fastest player in the league from baseline to baseline," and this is meant to indicate that said player has elite NBA level athleticism.
Such narrow definitions and descriptions of athleticism not only fail to capture the full breadth of what athleticism is, but they also fail to correlate athleticism with basketball greatness. Jumping high above the rim, broad jumping or sprinting very fast from baseline to baseline do not have much correlation with basketball greatness unless the player who has such abilities can apply them effectively on offense or defense.
Broad jumping ability is most useful in creating high percentage scoring opportunities, but it is important that the ability is deployed with an understanding of time/score/game situation. Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant are three players who not only had tremendous broad jumping ability but they each also had a great understanding of basketball fundamentals; for example, Erving's greatness is not defined by his mid-air feats, but by his ability to combine his physical skills with his broad understanding of the game--including knowing when to dunk, and when to execute a different shot or play. Similarly, Jordan and Bryant both knew how to use broad jumping ability in concert with basketball fundamentals to create high percentage scoring opportunities.
Athleticism should be defined in a broader way than just jumping high and running fast. Court vision, strength, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness, agility, and quickness are valuable athletic abilities.
Court vision refers not only to the ability to see what is happening on the court right now, but also to visualize what could or will happen depending on the movements of the other nine players. It has been said that Larry Brown could see where all of the other players were on the court at the same time, and that as a coach he would stop practice if a player were the slightest bit out of position. Brown was a three-time ABA All-Star guard who led the league in assists in each of the ABA's first three seasons before becoming the only coach to lead a team to an NCAA title (Kansas, 1988) and an NBA title (Detroit, 2004).
Boston Coach Bill Fitch called Larry Bird "Kodak" because it seemed like Bird could take a picture of the court with his mind and know where every player was. Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and LeBron James are three other all-time greats blessed with elite court vision. Jokic is similar to Bird, Robertson, Johnson, and James because he can see plays before they develop; such players can make a pass that creates an opening, as opposed to merely passing to a player who is already wide open.
Strength is an important athletic ability, but not in terms of specific movements such as the bench press or the squat; strength is important in basketball only to the extent that a player can leverage it to gain an advantage, such as better rebounding position or better post position (both offensively and defensively). Moses Malone was a master of the subtle (and not so subtle) application of strength to improve his positioning in the paint to grab rebounds and convert high percentage shots. Players like Malone and Jokic prove that it is not necessary to fly above the crowd to have an athletic advantage over the competition; strength, when properly utilized, is very difficult to counter.
Hand-eye coordination is an underrated athletic ability that enables a player to handle the ball with dexterity even against pressure defense, and to use the dribble or the pass as appropriate to gain an advantage for his team. Dribbling in one place to show off just wastes precious time on the shot clock without gaining an advantage; much of the ball handling that generates praise and social media views is worse than useless in terms of winning basketball. A player's overall body movements may seem awkward, but if that player has finely tuned hand-eye coordination then he can control the ball in a way that defeats even high level defense. When Jokic advances the ball up the court after snaring a defensive rebound, his body movements may not match traditional expectations for grace and athleticism, but his superior hand-eye coordination enables him to control the ball and to make plays for himself and his teammates.
Mental toughness, which could be specifically defined as the ability to keep going when lesser athletes would give up, is another underrated athletic skill. There is research supporting the notion that there is a specific brain region linked to hand-eye coordination, and that there is a signaling molecule (interleukin-6) that generates a feeling of tiredness (in short, it is not our bodies that become tired, but rather our brains signal us to feel tired, or to not feel tired). ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy mentioned that Jokic's improved physical conditioning enables Jokic to log heavy minutes without a drop in efficiency/productivity; I agree with that, but would add that Jokic also appears to possess a lot of mental toughness that enables him to persevere through various challenges (foul trouble, the minor injuries that all players face but that affect some players more than others, etc.).
It may be easier to notice differences in jumping ability between various players than to notice differences in some of the other athletic abilities, but differences in hand-eye coordination and mental toughness may be more important than differences in jumping ability. As Charles Barkley has said, a deer can run and jump, but that does not mean that a deer can play basketball.
Quickness is not the same as sprinting speed. Quickness encompasses both mental quickness and physical quickness; it is a tremendous advantage to process events quickly mentally, and then be able to move quickly physically based on openings to pass, shoot, or drive that may only be available for a split second. A player who has a combination of elite court vision plus physical quickness can be very effective even if he does not jump particularly high or run particularly fast.
Agility is the ability to maintain body balance even in seemingly awkward or unfavorable situations. While jumping ability can be measured, agility is more difficult to quantify, and that is probably why an agile player like Jokic is sometimes described as awkward or unathletic; the way that Jokic moves does not fit the stereotype of what an athletic player looks like, but if you observe Jokic you will notice that he rarely falls down, he is rarely out of position, and he repeatedly makes passes and shots that an uninformed viewer may consider to be lucky. If some guy in the park makes one awkward shot every five games, then that is probably luck--but when Jokic makes such shots and passes on a regular basis, it is incorrect to dismiss such plays as luck or to suggest that he is not athletic.
Describing Jokic as unathletic is lazy and imprecise. Jokic has not demonstrated elite abilities in high jumping, broad jumping, or straight line speed, but he has demonstrated elite abilities in terms of court vision, strength, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness, agility, and quickness. I would argue that if one takes a comprehensive view of athleticism then Jokic is one of the best athletes in the NBA; players whose athleticism is limited to jumping high and running fast are not athletic enough overall to match up with Jokic, and that is one reason why Jokic has enjoyed so much recent success both individually and in terms of leading the Denver Nuggets to the franchise's first championship.
Labels: Julius Erving, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Nikola Jokic, Oscar Robertson, Steve Nash
posted by David Friedman @ 11:32 AM
