Comments on TOOOAST!!!: Where Does Amazing Come From?

The "DC area" is an amorphous mess.

2009-04-30T19:44:00.000-05:00

The "DC area" is an amorphous mess.

The weather comment makes sense, and it really see...

2009-04-30T11:01:00.000-05:00

The weather comment makes sense, and it really seems applicable to baseball. For some reason, the northeast, especially NYC, has always been thought of as the primary breeding ground for basketball players. LA has been kind of reduced, and the the factor that led me to even do this research was that the Dallas area is totally ignored.

In other words, F NYC!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: If you look at...

2009-04-30T07:16:00.000-05:00

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention:

If you look at where most hockey players are from, you'll see that most of them are from cold weather climates. This, obviously, is because the weather makes practicing the sport much easier. Players from colder areas are more likely to practice more, play more, gain entrance into the best amateur teams, play against stronger competition, continue to improve, etc. (For more info on this, see the fab-o-lus book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.

I imagine the same is true of basketball. Cities where someone could practice basketball year round would be better breeding grounds for pro players. L.A. fills that bill perfectly. It's always warm there, but never so humid that you couldn't go outside, like in the South.

Sorry, this is way too long a comment. Again, great post.

Great POOOAST!!!. I don't follow basketball muc...

2009-04-30T07:10:00.000-05:00

Great POOOAST!!!.

I don't follow basketball much so I don't know if he is in the league anymore, but the once-great Grant Hill is also from the DC area (Northern VA to be exacter*.

Also, I know you were only looking at current ballers, as it were, but I feel compelled to say that Elgin Baylor was from DC as well.

*Not, technically, a word