The giraffe in the room when it comes to NBA is the height of the players - apparently the average height of NBA players has been declining for a while (and why is this do you guys reckon?) and it went down again this season... to six foot four point seven. Only one percent of Americans (American men I assume) are 6'4 or more. There have only been 25 players in the entire history of NBA at 5'9 or less which is the average height (and which is approximately my height).
I've been reading about this guy Zion Williams who is a newish one I think. It says that from a very young age he was determined to be an NBA player, he did extra training all the time and played against older boys a lot. From childhood he dominated his age group year after year and whatever team he played for tended to win pretty much every game. And I guess this the normal trajectory near enough for lots of top level sportsmen (there was one top level football player - I think Ian Wright but I could be wrong - who never played the game until he was fourteen or fifteen but that is extremely rare, probably rarer stil these days) but, with basketball there is an extra gamble involved - will you make the necessary height?
Luckily for Zion, at about seventeen or something he shot up to six foot six, but what if he had peaked at a mere 6'2, or even 5'6? It seems fair to assume that, at the very least, he would have had to be a different type of player had he not grown into a freakishly tall monster man. Maybe both his parents were very tall but choosing to put all your eggs in one basket at a young age when you don't know if your genes will let you through the door is a double risk. And of course, we hear about him cos he made it, I guess there are probably hundreds of other equally talented players in each cohort who never had that growth spurt and so were simply ruled out of the game.
Very interesting that average height is decreasing though. If I were one of the powers that be in basketball and my aim was to make the sport more popular then I think I would be looking for ways to make sure that process continues and, if possible accelerated. I have no idea what the reason for this is and I'm sure what I'm about to say is completely impossible at the moment - but imagine if somehow the game could be changed so that height wasn't the huge advantage that it is now. If everyone with the talent had the same chance of making it, would that extra accessibility make it more popular... or would it somehow remove some of the untouchable magic of the sport?