These Regular Guys Challenged An NBA Player And Instantly Regretted It

"I'm closer to LeBron, than you are to me" - Brian Scalabrine

I went to high school with Michael Jordan. I am 6’3” and (am still) in great shape. Played him one day 1 on 1 - at his home, no less. We played to 10. And, despite having a cold, I won fairly easy: 10-5. No lie. Also no lie: the Michael Jordan I played that day was a skinny 5’3” white kid. Good shooter.

Update: Jordan Poole is now an NBA champion. He definitely took notes and worked hard to where he is now.

Scalabrine is an energy guy.... He wouldn't show up on that list of great players because he was not known as a scorer, but he was known as a scrappy player who does the dirty stuff for the Boston Celtics. You may not know him, but the die hard NBA fans do. That guy was a part of that 2008 Championship Boston Team.

This is the case in pretty much every sport. I'm from the UK, and played football (soccer) against a player when we were teenagers, who ended up playing professionally in the Premier League years later. We weren't a bad team, but remember not being able to get close to this kid--he scored about 8 or 9 goals. It was only years later that I saw him playing in the Premier League that made me realise how big the gulf is. He wasn't even in the prime of his career when we played him, and he wasn't even one of the better players in the league when he was playing in the Premier League.
His name is Scott Sinclair...It made me wonder how good the others are.

I went to a pickup soccer game one time. Good level of competion, mostly college players home for summer break. Some older guys too that still had a good touch. The oldest guy there was a former player for the Cameroon national team. He was in his 60s and had a knee injury so he couldn't run much. He was jogging around in the middle of the field going 10%. The ball stayed on his foot like glue and he would embarrass anyone that tried to steal it from him. Best touch I've ever seen. Can't imagine how good he was in his prime.

Reminds me of when I was 19yo and won a local Table Tennis (ping pong) tournament. My head (ego) exploded, thinking I must be the greatest player on Earth. Some of the guys I beat told me I wasn’t so good and that I should play the old man who comes there on Wednesday nights.
The following week, I showed up to put this old man in his place. Harry (the old man) showed up, too, in his 57yo body, gray hair, dress shirt, dress pants, and dress shoes. I asked him if we could play (knowing that I would easily beat him) and he said, “Sure. I’ll start at 21 in-the-hole (-21) and I’ll spot you 19.” (Note: Back then, TT games were played to 21 points, win by two.)
Naturally, I immediately thought this old man wouldn’t take me seriously until he sees how good I am, so I said, “Okay, let’s go!”
Harry let me serve first and my plan was to win two quick points and wrap up that first game quickly, then beat him in front of everyone in a normal game where we both start at zero. If you haven’t already guessed, things did not go as planned. Well, to be clear, things did not go as *I* had planned.
On the contrary, 42 consecutive points later, Harry DeSchamps-a very kind gentleman who I later learned was the 2-time U.S. Open Runner-Up, 2-time Canadian Open Champion, and then-current No. 1 ranked Seniors player-had shown me precisely the point made in this basketball video: there are levels to sports that most of us don’t even realize exist unless we are fortunate enough to experience them first-hand.
Despite my best effort, I did not win a single one of those 42 points. NOT ONE!
Thankfully, Harry and I became good friends and years later we even started a local TT club. We played hundreds-maybe thousands-of games over the next 10-12 years before I moved away. Harry never let me win, but he always made losing an absolutely joyful experience.
I did beat him one game (barely), but only because he was in his mid-60s by then and clearly having a bad night, while I was “in the zone”.
Harry’s gone now, and I miss him. More than anything, he taught me that winning doesn’t matter at all. Doing what you enjoy and sharing that joy with others is everything.
FOLLOW UP STORY: Below you can find a follow-up to my original post above, about the last time I ever spent with Harry. Because so many of you have left such kind comments about my original post, I thought you might also enjoy that follow-up.
If so, you can find it below in a reply I made to @dwight_Phoenix that begins, "Thank you SO MUCH..."
I hope it will bring you as much joy as Harry brought to my life.

My "oh shit, none of us ain't shit" moment was in high school when my varsity team went up against... Gilbert Arenas. Our team won our division and had multiple future D1 players and he torched us for like 40 in the first half and then didn't even play in the second half. Our best players looked like tiny helpless babies next to him. I didn't understand how it was possible that like 30 players got drafted ahead of him in the NBA draft a couple years later. These guys are the elite of the elite of the elite.

As a Suns fan I always wanted to play Charles Barkley, not because I thought I could beat him, but because we're roughly the same size but he was (and still is) obviously much more talented than me, but I wanted to see how strong he was. See how he could move bigger people around was mind-boggling to me.

I went to a highschool with two guys who played in the NFL , the linemen of the two was the biggest freshman you've ever seen , In his freshman year of highschool he was bigger than most of the senior guys ,and he played varsity football as a freshman . Dude was so big you'd have to put 3 guys on him to stop him on defense and it felt like he could protect the quarterback from 5 guys at once on the offensive end.
He got a college scholarship and made two all conference teams and then made it to the NFL undrafted but played on the patriots practice squad for years where he won a few rings for his role.
I think about how he was the best person in his position at the school the moment he started highschool before he'd ever even practiced really but only actually ever played a hand full of games in the NFL as a deep bench backup .
The strongest and largest guy i knew in highschool and a man celebrated twice as some of the best talent in the country for his college play was only ever good enough to play backup and practice minutes on a championship NFL team.
Talk about perspective.

After reading all these awesome comments, I have to share my personal one.
Used to play volleyball on high school and there was this other kid on my team, who didn't really stand out at all.
Fast forward 14 years, he was a beach volleyball olympic champion.
I share this because I read somewhere down the comments "these pros were head and shoulders above their teammates all the way to college", and from the one guy I know, that does not confirm. I'm guessing he just kept going, putting insane amounts of time and effort to get there.

I've played ball with two NBA players. The first was when I was young and was attending Boise State. Chris Childs was playing there and we guarded each other. On the first pass of the game I caught the ball and hit a turnaround over him. I think he thought I was lucky because he let me do it again the very next play. Then it was like the lights got turned out. I didn't touch the ball on offense or defense the rest of the game. I could do nothing against him, his defense was so strong.
Then when I was quite a bit older I got to play pick up ball against Jon Coker. I had only seen Coker play a couple games of Boise State and had thought of him as kind of slow and was surprised that he made the league. When I played him he had been retired for a year and a half and had gone through chemotherapy for cancer treatment. That day, which I think was the first day he picked up a basketball in a year or so, he was the fastest player on the court, he was the best ball handler, the best passer, the best shooter, and easily the best defender all at 7 ft. I've played and watched a lot of basketball and I would have thought he was as good as Kevin Garnett if I hadn't known better. It's like they've evolved to a different species almost. It really is amazing.

I love VanVleet. Every person should watch Fred's speech at his draft party...when he wasn't drafted. He thanked everyone for coming, spoke with confidence, and said he would continue to work at getting to the NBA. No tears...no excuses...just toughness. Last week, he played in the NBA all-star game, and although I'll never meet the guy, I really admire him.

Was on a pretty solid AAU team in high school that Bobby Jackson was partially coaching. One day He had some former and newer NBA players at our practice (Mike Bibby, Beno Udrih, Isaiah Thomas and even Demarcus Cousins was there for a sec). Long story short, those guys mopped the floor with us and we even had a couple talented/big dudes who ended up playing for D1-D2 colleges and 1 who even got drafted and is now in the G league.
Theres definitely levels to this shit.

I love this video man, great idea. I grew up playing hockey and played in college. I had a few “lower level” ex NHL players in our adult league, the skill level gap was hilarious even against your much better than average player.

Looking back at this and seeing him have to introduce Jordan Poole is crazy. Now anybody who watches Basketball knows who Jordan Poole is.

That fred vanfleet 1v1 was so insane to me imagine putting together footwork like that and dribble moves and drives. Insane skill

Came back to watch this video. Reminded me when we played against Kendrick Perkins in High school here in Beaumont, Texas. Ozen and West Brook would play against each other twice a year. Lets just say... Kendrick alone outscored our entire team and ran us over like it was nothing. Ive personally felt that bump he use to give... it didnt feel good. He was drafted out of high school the next season to the Celtics and had a very respectable career. Perspective is right. I learned that year of high school that NBA level talent is lightyears ahead of the avg joe. My skills were good but I had nothing on this kat. My best skill was free throws. Thats about it.

The Scalabrine story just shows you that he was holding back in the league, he could have been a bigger G.O.A.T but he felt bad for Lebron and MJ

I used to work w/ a former under-20 or under-21 Japanese national men's soccer team member. I only played rec soccer, but to watch him control the ball, speed, agility... it was all phenomenal to me. After changing jobs, he played in a inter-company league. Apparently, he'd be double and triple marked most of his matches. I'm sure in his league were former HS and maybe even college level players.

It really is like that in any sport. I competed in powerlifting for a few years, I was the strongest one of my friends, I really thought I was strong. Then I went and trained with a guy who competed in the USPLA, and literally his intensity in his warmups was more than I could muster in my top sets. He was a machine, every rep perfect, even as we progressed through the weights. I'll never forget it.

There are levels within the levels that Jimmy pointed out here too. I've recently played in 2 rec leagues within 6 months: the first was in SoCal (which has a great basketball scene) and contained many "retired" high school stars looking to have fun, and the second was in Denver (decidedly worse basketball scene) and contained mostly average joes. Stats were kept in both leagues, and I averaged 9ppg on 32%FG and 23% from 3 in the SoCal league while I managed 20ppg on 52%FG and 47%3PT in the Denver league. To top it off I struggled and had to play really hard to average that 9ppg in SoCal, while I barely tried in Denver but still managed to more than double that scoring output. The fact that there is a huge gap even between the levels within levels of a sport further helps to demonstrate the massive gap between mere mortals and NBA players!

I played High School ball. Maybe could have played D2/D3 ball in college. I went to a low-level D1 school and played pick-up with the guys on the team sometimes and was arguably about as good as the walk-on that joined the team that year. That sets the stage on my ability. FWIW, 6'5"
My senior year in high school, at basketball practice one day, a guy came to play with us a bit; he was dating one of the girls at my school. He was maybe an inch taller than me (6'6") and a little more muscular. I didn't know who he was so when he came into the lane, I tried to defend him...and got POSTERIZED!!!
This was how much better than me Rodney Rogers was his senior year of high school. While I got better as a young adult (I probably played pick-up 2-3 times a year), he got a TON better in his (3) years in the ACC and went on to have a heck of a pro career.
So yeah, anybody who thinks they can come close to these guys is clueless.

In college I had the opportunity to see a summer league game where members of the CAVS, Sonics, and Hawks players showed up.
As a decent college athlete let me say I have never experienced up close and personal the skills those guys displayed that day.
What I remember most was how effortlessly the ball came off their fingers in rhythm. Down right mesmerizing. None of stood a chance and after 10 minutes of play reality stepped in.
They were coming over the half court line launching and turning around to get back on defense because they knew the ball was stripping all cord.
😆

Reminds me of when a former player at our high school, who ended up in the NBA averaging less than 2 minutes per game, came back to lead a few practices while he was recovering from an injury. He was playing at maybe 50% and still made us all look like we didn't even know how to play the game of basketball. That was my 'Yeah, there's a 0% chance I'm going to the NBA' moment.

Talent and size definitely play big part of it especially size. But I think what most people fail to understand about professional players vs regular guys is the great divide in the total number of hours played. Think of all the hours you work per week on your job, and then realize that your average NBA player has been on the court playing the game for that same number of hours each week since their youth.
As an average Joe player, assuming you had the natural size, it would still take you 8 to 10 years playing the game 6 to 8 hours a day mixed in with special instruction and coaching to get on the level of a league player and of course, that’s with laser focus and a burning desire.

My bud played small forward at Penn State. Good/great player. I was a decent high school baller, guard and could almost hang with him on the court even though I was 5'10" and he was 6'5". Rick was invited to a tryout with the Knicks against Ewing back in the day. He told me he thought he could hang and maybe even make the team. When he got on the court he was so outclassed that he was gone in a week. That's the difference between NBA and even good college talent.

I played in a pretty high standard weekly pickup game in Australia a while back. Steve Carfino, who was drafted by the Celtics in the 80s but never suited up, then relocated and was a star in the Australian NBL before back problems ended his career in 1991, sometimes came down. This was maybe 10 years ago so he was 20+ years past his retirement. Man, he was SO good.
He only played (at most) at half speed, but would just cook you. open or not - he'd hit that 3 as casual as you like, whenever he wanted to. But he obviously preferred to facilitate. Playing on his team was next level fun. You could run just about any cut and he'd somehow find you with a picture perfect pass, open at the rim. Occasionally he'd take a point seriously, and forget it. You weren't stopping him.
One of my life highlights was picking his pocket, then on the next play, hitting a shot on him. I'll ignore the fact he was barely defending me haha. Such a great guy too and his son is pretty good.

Great video, I grew up across the street from Earl Boykins family in Cleveland who was a journey man 5'5 nba player. He once showed up to the LA fitness me and my friends were playing at and proceeded to end our 5 game win streak by scoring every bucket and doing whatever he wanted at will. The kicker is he picked up some random little kids on his team so it was 1 vs 5 and we still couldn't stop him. At that moment I knew there was a major skill gap between good rec hoppers and NBA players he also use to bench 250 with ease dude was a freak of nature

I think what you are underselling here is that that none of those guys could play defense. I think a big takeaway from this is that playing defense at an NBA level is insanely difficult. like, honestly they weren't really contesting/bodying up Scal well at all. he was either too fast or too strong

Credit to Jordan Poole for working his ass off to the point where he has been an excellent contributor for the Warriors.

Correction: Matt Tomaazewski did not start at Syracuse. He played a total of 10 games, where he averaged just under two minutes per game.

This just shows how much work you actually have to put into this sport in order to just make into the NBA. How a guy at the end of the bench is on a completely different level then from us as regular hoopers. It’s God Given talent and sacrifice

Reminds me of my brother racing in school swim carnivals in his senior year, about a month before he went to Olympic trials 😂 smacked everyone up and it was hilarious to watch. Although his competition at said Olympic trials proceeded to do the same to him and then win a gold in Tokyo next time around… 😬

Got to play flag football with Vince Young. Definitely a whole other thing to see their talents while playing against them. The man just flicked his wrist and bombed the ball 50 yards in the air with crazy height. I remember I stopped in my tracks just watching the ball soar through the air. BUT, I can say that I successfully defended a pass against Vince Young lol

Brian was a bench warmer he might not played many minutes in the actual NBA games but he played tons of practice and tune up games with his former teams

I played a D1 “nobody” several years after his career, 3 times during a summer camp. He scored 45. I scored 11. I am very proud of those 11 points. He was incredible.

Scal was a valuable coach player. That dude who can really help in practice, and help make coaching decisions.

This video is now proof of how insane the warriors are at developing talent. Poole has taken leaps and bounds since that Van Vleet challenge.

When I was 22 at the absolute peak of my game, hitting 3's, dunking in games, I pulled up to my local park and went round and round against a guy, basically splitting the series. I asked if he played college, and he said he hadn't even played high school.....because he was going into 8th grade. He ended up starting D1, NBA D-League, and was a pro overseas for 15 years. I beat him......when he was 12.....and that was the best I have ever played or will play. These dudes are light years ahead. He'd come out to the park after he went D1, and it was absolute joke to even attempt to guard him.

Back in the late 70's I started a 16 inch softball team in the Chicago area, our team was fairly competitive but nothing outstanding. By our 3rd season we won the league but the year before this 1 of the teams brought a player who we found out later was Hall Of Famer Ron “Big O” Olesiak!! Ron only got to play a couple of games before being asked to leave because he would hit a home run over the fence every time he came up to bat. After his first 3 plate appearances against us he had 2 monster homeruns and a line drive frozen rope double that hit 1 foot from the top of the fence, he was pissed that it didn't go over for another homer. We finally got tired of trying to get him out so we rolled the ball to the plate the remainder of the game. After this game I think the other teams followed suit and wouldn't pitch to him so he just disappeared a few weeks later. It was like a god playing with 6 year old kids and I'll never forget the feeling of hopelessness trying to compete with him. That guy could hit almost anything for a homer!!

I remember getting to middle school after being the best basketball player in my little ass town and just getting beat up and down the court all day. Was a good lesson to learn as a kid that these guys were just as athletic and actually practicing on their own.

I've play hockey with some retired NHL guys. Let me tell you... At 60+, these guys can take 4 strides and make it all the down ice. They can shoot from their own blue line and score at-will. While they remain more physically advanced even in retirement, it's their game knowledge and vision that blows my mind. They literally know what you're thinking before you do. It's a greater achievement to steal the puck from one of these guys than it is to score.

This also reminds me of once in Alameda, CA, when USS Abraham Lincoln first changed ports there from Norfolk, VA. We scheduled a softball game with retired MLB players. We have our shipboard BEST out there and were creamed like we were 2nd graders. It was an honor to play with those guys and of course, we were star-struck, but we wanted to win. Hell, after a while, we just wanted to score. Ever heard the definition of night and day? That would be like a former pro vs. the average Joe. The differences are like the difference between noon and midnight. These guys were better than us on their worse day than we could ever hope to be on our best day. Thanks, Brian.

Different sport but in a “competitive” Flag Football league there was a former NFL safety who played about five season in the NFL but was buried in the depth chart or was on the practice squad during his hey days. At this point he was in his mid to late 30s and probably over 30 lbs his playing weight. But OMG. He was only 5’11 but jumped over me for a catch. No one could catch him in the open field. His route running and footwork was unbelievable. It was like we were all running in three feet of snow while he was speed skating. Like a lot of the guys in our flag football league were good athletes in our 20s but that’s when most people realized there’s levels to this shit.

Dude, I hooped with a guy who was a freaking career back up and bench rider. At 45 years old he was balling out on us all day. There are clear levels to the skill gaps. Just to make a roster is a big deal.

I once heard someone say “for a professional athlete to be bad he first has to be really good” and I think that summarizes this pretty well. The worst pro you ever saw play had to be really good just to get the chance to ever play professionally.

I never played against an NBA player but I did play against University of Cincinnati Bearcats players while in college and they ran my ass off the court. We were going to 11 and by the time the score was 5 I knew I had made a grave mistake 🤣

It’s a good day in the community when Jimmy uploads

Also shows the improvement u make from playing like 2-4 mpg in the nba, just the fact that you're training with superstar talent players will make u so much better. Poole played like absolute dog his first season, did not really get many minutes and went to the g-league, but i think the fact the he's been around steph, klay, draymond and all the other vets for 3 years, made him so so much better

I saw these guys at the YMCA, they were in a different league from the average player. They did not miss any open shots (short, mid, long range shots), they were fast, they knew how to run plays.....they were probably college players.

Our D1 university varsity soccer guys would occasionally drop by the futsal pick up games during the winter. Chris Mueller, who played for Orlando in the MLS and made the USMNT a few times, would run circles around us. Funny because at the time me and my friends would go toe-to-toe with the club soccer team, so we thought we was worth something.

Played golf w a former pro once and it was remarkable. The most consistent, easy, and senseless game of golf I’ve ever seen delivered with zero arrogance. Amazing. I sunk a 40’ putt though. Rising waters lift all ships.

I was pretty decent back when I was college age some 40 years ago and played pickup against pros and major college guys on more than a few occasions. the differences between a really good gym rat and even a low level pro were both subtle and undeniably large even back then. Main thing that stood out was how much faster their reactions were and how much better they were within the game flow. pro going full speed on a fast break could adjust to a pass thrown considerably behind them and continue to finish at the rim, while I would usually watch it sail out of bounds behind me.
In the years since they've uniformly gotten bigger, more athletic, skilled and fundamentally sound, while guys like me really haven't.
Also, in this case you can't teach height. Think Scalabrini played at something like 6'8", which is a lot to ask of a 6'2" guy to defend.

let’s be honest, Jimmy is the one of the best basketball youtubers. what a great guy.

Great video. When I was 18 and in College I had an experience. The Chicago Bears have their facility at my college. My roommates and I were shooting around. Dan Hampton was just shooting at the other end. He asked if we wanted to okay. Since I was the runt I was on his team. He passed me the ball and it knocked me over. Needless to say he destroyed all of us. Even great athletes in another sport are so far superior.

Great video. It's too true how most don't realize how good pro sports players really are. If you're decent at the community court it really doesn't mean you're good enough for the NBA. I thought I was decent because I was one of the better players in gym class and at the playground. I was hard to beat 1v1, had a great hook shot, my ball handling was compared to Globetrotters and my passing was referred to as 'magic'. I was tasked with guarding our high school's starting point guard because I was the best player aside from him during physEd games for fun (in that set of students anyway). I had zero chance. The dude made a complete fool out of me.

As a 5 foot 8 guard I'll tell u it was no fun playing against Chris Webber in high school. Dude could cover the whole court in 4 strides! I played former Celtic Terry Duerod in the Detroit police league when he was a fireman and much older, it mattered not! He gave my squad 40 without a deep breath! R.I.P Due!

The talent gap is simply amazing. I'm 40 and play in a rec league. I was a decent high school ball player I'm still in reasonably decent shape and an above average shooter. Our team is all middle age guys that played at various high schools and one played some lower level college ball. In my 20's and into early 30's I'd played against several D3 guys and could at the very least hold my own against them. This season we picked up a kid that's an assistant at our local D2 College. He was a 4 year player at a mid major and averaged 9 per game now in his mid 20's. He's a 6-6 guard. He humors us and plays very unselfish team basketball. But when he decides he wants to get a bucket he just goes and gets one. I'd be willing to bet he's shooting above 70% on the season. It is completely effortless and he gets to his spot anytime he wants. He is on a totally different level than anyone I've played with or against it's crazy. I couldn't even begin to imagine what even a rotation player in league can do in the same situation. The gap is huge. Those guys have dedicated their life to mastering their craft.

Many years ago I was at a gym in Seattle and Detlef Schrempf showed up playing another NBA guy Quinn Buckner. Damn, the way they dribbled, moved, and shot was like they were from another planet and man were they tall...

People severely underestimate just how good the worst nba player is.

The level of competition they play/played against over their playing years between intense practices and games creates such an immense gap of what they are able to do against the talent they go up against. Despite whatever talent a lot of these young bucks have, many have similar experiences in simply steamrolling inferior competition, so they have no idea what it's like to go up against someone whose game demands more physical strength, endurance, and reaction/speed than you've ever had to use.

Pretty true with any sport. When I was young I thought I was really fast on a dirt bike. Then I went to my first professional motocross race. Knew right then I better figure out a plan B, lol. Those guys were going faster through knee deep whoops than I could have on flat ground. Talent, and big, brass balls, lol.

Just goes to show how much hard work the shorter guys put in

It happened to me
I’m Brazilian and There was a player in my favorite team called Fernandinho
He was trash and fans always joked about him
One day I was in a hotel (vacations) and Fernandinho was there too
There was a friendly soccer match and I was thinking I would be able to play toe to toe against him. Even being above average player I couldn’t even touch the ball while Fernandinho has it.
It was a mind blowing to me to see how far pro players are from the average Joes
But it’s important to remember that all great players were average once
They worked really hard to get their abilities
If you wanna be a pro player, work hard and play with passion
The rest will come

I used to play at a local park with some pretty serious dudes (even though I suck). A dude who walked on to a D1 school and played a few seasons in Europe showed up and his five won every game 21-0 in under 5 minutes. We couldn’t advance the ball down the court and the dude didn’t miss a shot. If that’s what overseas pros can do just imagine what ANY NBA guy could do.

"Average players practice until they get it right. Professional players practice until they can't get it wrong." You have been advised.

I felt that way about feild goal kickers . a lost game couple years ago from a missed feild goal prompted me to say “I don’t see how he could kiss a 15 yard feild goal, I can do that in sandals!!”
We’ll long story short I went and bought a football and quickly seen that I CANT!
Moral to the story is if you see anyone playing for a professional team they’re there for a reason. In any sport. They’re so good they make it look easy !

I looked up Jake Fay, he actually did play college ball at Fordham and Hartford. Possibly a walk-on, didn't get any playing time but did play D-1.

I told my son one time the last player sittin on the bench on an NBA team is the most unbelievable incredible player that he could ever imagine in his life! And he looked at me with kuku eyes !

Can’t lie I’ve had the passing thought before. But the way you went about demonstrating this point, With an older Brian scalabrine dominating a decently athletic looking high schooler sold it. Earned a sub easily

As a successful high school wrestler in Seattle one of our assistant coaches was a BYU wrestling champion and former California State Champ. I was strong and quick but could NEVER take him down. He hadn't wrestled in years and was a practicing attorney but helped coached us. Sure kept all of us humble.

I love this guy, 11 or 12 years in the league at the bottom.
He comes out checks some egos make even more green and has a blast all at the same time.
EPIC, smart dude, not taking himself to seriously and still educating the masses.

Back in college my friends and I were playing a pick up game when Sean Rooks (RIP) randomly showed up with his son, and wanted his son to play with us so he knew how to play against bigger/older people. Of course Sean Rooks wanted to play also and when I say this guy would shoot from half court and make it, and wasn't breaking a sweat just proved to my friends and I that the closest we'll get to playing pro is on 2k lol our 100% was his 15%

Love this video. If I had to take a pick on who I thought I would have the best chance against playing,I would probably say J.J Barea.

People forget that the guy at the end of an NBA bench has a highlight reel from high school, college, or a foreign league. Every guy in the NBA was a star before he got to the league.

I would love to see a former star do this challenge lol shout out to the white mamba. I played at a professional level overseas and I was never dumb enough to challenge anyone who ever played in the nba

Yeah I thought I was a top baseball player in HS. , Playing since I was 5, numerous undefeated teams and All-Star teams I started on. One day at practice coach brings in an old washed up pitcher that never made it out of double A ball. The guy starts off with some fastballs, I'm making decent contact, thinking to myself this guy is bum salad...I guess he was just warming up. Starts throwing curve balls that have me buckling at the knee's, sometimes jumping out of the batters box thinking the balls are going to hit me yet the sail right over the plate. He starts throwing sliders that have me swinging at balls a foot out of the strike zone. The old ball player made a fool of me, made a fool of the whole team...very humbling moment. There are levels to all sports..and this is why I laugh when people say things like "that guy sucks" when watching professional sports.

Brian Scalabrine quote: "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me." Sums it up.

love stumbling onto this after Poole's career game 2 against the nuggets. in a short time he practically became a splash brother.

I played the 3 and 4 in HS and was decent. My nick was 'white Shaq', because I had a good vert and could easily dunk. Played AAU and rec leagues, could have played JuCo, chose not to... So in my early to mid 20s, I play at a local YMCA that was a choice spot for pick up games. I was definitely one of the better players out there, and at 6'4" was typically one of the tallest. So like every time some baller comes in there, I almost always got put on the other team and then had to guard them. Dudes who played receiver for the local NFL team and played basketball in Div 1 prior. Dudes who were presently playing for North Carolina and Kentucky. Bullshit like that. I pretty much got smoked every time. The worst was the kid who played for NC. He was like 6'8" and was way more athletic than me. Like I've got ups, I could hit my elbow on the rim, and this dude would be like a foot higher up than me when getting rebounds, it was insane.

I played one on one against Ed Davis when we were in high school together. He was 6’8” at the time and I was 5’8”. He was taking mid range shots and missing and I got up about 7-3. At that point he said “fvck this” and started to post me up and dunk in my face until he beat mean 11-7.
I guess that’s what happens when you play a future NBA lottery pick…

I played JUCO football and witnessed this exact same thing when I entered semi-pro. Dwayne Wright from the Giants played on our team and we all thought we were about to light up an old washed RB. Imagine 11-0 but a grown man in pads lowering his head instead.

Anyone thinking realistically about a challenge like this needs to remember you are going after another guy who has already been there and DONE that. A ton more than you have even dreamed of it, pretty sure they got there for a reason.

Honestly I'm sure I would be sweeped by 82-year-old Jerry West in a one-on-one game right now.

Wow, crazy now that we fast forward in time and Jordan Poole - the elite High School athlete who got torched by Fred Vanvleet and Marcue Posley - just put up massive numbers off the bench (and should've won Most Improved Player) for the Golden State Warriors on route to another NBA Championship. I think if he and Vanvleet were to go at it now - it'd be far more even then when they went at it when Poole was in High School.

That dude went home, turned on 2K, went to the black top, and Scal still beat him 11-0.
Also, I wanna play against an NBA player, not because I think I’ll win. Not because I think I’ll score, but to simply see how much better they are than me. How much better they are than guys I went to high school and college with (I didn’t play in HS or college, just pick up games and stuff for fun). Just to see what it is like guarding them. Just would have me in awe.

When I was in middle school. We got to play Avery Johnson in a 5 on 1. He demolished us like we had never touched a ball. We were middle school state champions, and he made us look like we were all standing still.

Humbling video.
I played high school football poorly, but I was a fast safety. We were a shitty country school who got to play teams from Detroit once a year. This one kid ran so fast that it literally made me laugh. It's like his speed didn't compute in my shitty little brain. I knew that dude was the real deal, and was going to be huge. They absolutely WORKED us.
He played two years in college, and then some city league. He's a skilled tradesman now.

That was a nice video - thx !
It just shows that a good sportmans, a good hooper wont ever be good if u dont fight opponents.
If u permanent fight those small fishes on the local courts, u wont boost ur skills, just ur ego, so if u want show what u re made of, try to join the league, fight better and better opponents and grow by ea task & bring the ability to listen to coaches and experienced players, because the ego often stands in our way to develop. And the moment we admit we can learn from others, we will grow.

I’m pretty positive I could take Shaq at a free throw contest

When I was in college, I played pickup with Ron Harper (Cavs, Bulls, Lakers) and some of the other varsity players. Ron wasn't even trying and dunked, rained 3's, did whatever he wanted and didn't even break a sweat. They let me touch the ball and shoot a few shots uncontested, I might've made one lucky one where no one was even within 10 feet of me. Needless to say, watching these guys play at maybe 30-40% effort was just as jaw-dropping.

This video underscores the sad delusion so many young guys suffer, thinking that someday they are going to be pros. Scal was obviously not NBA elite but he still dominates even skilled, athletic players. Also, Scal does a great job in his current NBA-affiliated job - he’s a really good color guy on the Celtics’ TV broadcasts - very informative and entertaining.

I respect Jordan Poole I see how he got better he wasn't scared to play better players to learn from and improve

I love coming back to this to kinda see just how much Poole has improved

I'm actually one of the guys in the video that played with D wade! It was before his final year in the off season. I'm the bald guy with the tank top. What an amazing unforgettable experience! D wade is not only a Hall of Famer, but one of the nicest guys ever!

Just look at it this way:
The Celtics thought it was worth it to pay Scalabrine $1.4 million to sit on the bench for 90% of the season.

Not a lesson I needed, but always so fascinating to see NBA players at the gym it's hilarious

i had a friend once in college that if he said, starting as a kid, spent as much time practicing football as he did playing video games he'd be a tight end in the NFL lol

I will say that while I was in prison in TX I saw a guy who was one of the best Ive ever seen. He was killing on the court and never missed. Honestly he was a one man team. I would go to rec just to watch him play. Dude was awsome