Player rankings, which schools they play for, and labels assigned to them are all trivial once the game clock starts.
Sports fans are all familiar with player rankings. They happen professionally all the time. College players get ranked as the draft approaches and teams get ranked ahead of the big dance. In high school, top national players get ranked as they near college age.
For those high school players, they are also judged by the number of scholarship offers and the perceived quality of those programs. Many players garner labels such as skinny, shooter, weak defender, low post player, headcase, pass-first, and so on.
How much do all of these judgments and perceptions actually matter? Glad you asked.
The answer is very little. We cannot say “not at all” because that is not true. Scouts have to have labels to do their best at finding top recruits. Schools like Duke and Kentucky have earned the right to be more respected basketball programs than most. However, what really matters is what happens when the ball goes up and the game clock starts.
At The Basketball Movement Invitational that we recently hosted, we had several nationally ranked players such as Anton Brookshire, Tyrese Hunter, and Jordan Nesbitt. As Rob Yanders pointed out in his opening address, we do not care about your rankings or scholarships. The players that belong among the elite must prove it on the court.
Rankings are fun, but at the end of the day, the players that are best equipped to move on to the next level will do so. The physically gifted may get a head start, but hard work is the biggest separator in our eyes when it comes to how we “rank” athletes.
Players, please do your best to not sweat these things. If anything, use it for fuel. It seems that in every pro game, there are impact players being pointed out as being from small schools or undrafted. These recent NBA Finals featured a former Division III athlete in Duncan Robinson.
It does not matter where you come from, but how you intend to get where you are going. Go light it up at a small school. Be the hardest working player in a gym of highly ranked players. Shed your labels and prove you are the player you know you are.
As always, we can help. Hit us up at basketballmovement@yahoo to get with a trainer and make it happen.