We've heard it before. A team is in the championship game (regardless of what sport) and people say that they won't be able to win due to their inexperience. They'll choke or the veterans on the other club will just be better. This reasoning has been used to debate thousands of games over the course of sports history.
I ask this because my friends and I got into a debate about it regarding the NBA Finals. People don't believe in the Thunder because of their youth and inexperience in big-time games.
So what do you think? Can a professional team be "too young"? Can inexperience outweigh talent?
Personally, I don't think so at all, but I want to hear what the BSL community thinks.
"They're Too Young to Win the Championship"
Started by
Chris B
, Jun 13 2012 03:22 PM
5 replies to this topic
#1
Chris B
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#2
Greg Pappas
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Posted 13 June 2012 - 03:31 PM
If what you're asking is 'Can a team that makes it to a Championship Game be too young to win it?'... then the simple and short of it is "no". If a team is good enough to get there, then they're good enough to win it... although the odds would typically favor a more experienced/veteran team. The Heat will likely win the series, but "it's on!" after the results of Game One.
#3
Chris B
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Posted 13 June 2012 - 03:34 PM
If what you're asking is 'Can a team that makes it to a Championship Game be too young to win it?'... then the simple and short of it is "no". If a team is good enough to get there, then they're good enough to win it... although the odds would typically favor a more experienced/veteran team. The Heat will likely win the series, but "it's on!" after the results of Game One.
Haha damn, it sounds like I worded it wrong. Too confusing!
#4
Greg Pappas
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Posted 13 June 2012 - 03:56 PM
Haha damn, it sounds like I worded it wrong. Too confusing!
Not really, it was worded just fine... it's just that I wanted to be 100% sure that I was reading it right. No worries.
#5
DJ MC
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Posted 13 June 2012 - 05:15 PM
The problem isn't how you worded the question. The problem is how too many people think about the question.
Thinking about it in terms of age is all wrong. It is all about talent, and turning that talent into developed skills. Age is an easy (or, more often, lazy) shorthand, because through history we have a general idea of the general progression of talent into skill for the athlete population-at-large. But for individual players or teams that may not matter, and blocking out logic in favor of set rules of thought is never a good idea.
I'm willing to concede that there is more pressure in a playoff or championship situation than in a comparable game situation during the season, in any sport. However, again, you can't just assume a "choke" or poor performance for the sole reason that a player has not been in that situation before.
We're still a sports-consuming society that prefers to offer up supernatural explanations for events instead of logical thought. So we say that a team is too young to win, and that they can't handle the pressure until they have "been there before", when that is just not true.
Thinking about it in terms of age is all wrong. It is all about talent, and turning that talent into developed skills. Age is an easy (or, more often, lazy) shorthand, because through history we have a general idea of the general progression of talent into skill for the athlete population-at-large. But for individual players or teams that may not matter, and blocking out logic in favor of set rules of thought is never a good idea.
I'm willing to concede that there is more pressure in a playoff or championship situation than in a comparable game situation during the season, in any sport. However, again, you can't just assume a "choke" or poor performance for the sole reason that a player has not been in that situation before.
We're still a sports-consuming society that prefers to offer up supernatural explanations for events instead of logical thought. So we say that a team is too young to win, and that they can't handle the pressure until they have "been there before", when that is just not true.
#6
Nuclear Dish
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Posted 14 June 2012 - 06:41 AM
I know it's a bit different at the college level, but Kentucky had something like 4 freshmen on its championship team this year.
"Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax..."
-Walter Sobchak
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