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Comment by matchagaucho | Hacker News Reader

The ugliest moments in history started with a "genetics matter"stance. Not worth repeating.

I get that eugenics is ugly, and shouldn't be accepted, but are you telling me those 4'8" basketball players aren't in the NBA because they just don't want it enough?

The problem with this article is that it makes a huge logical leap from saying a short person is highly unlikely to become one of the best 400 basketball players on earth, to then say resources shouldn't be wasted on kids that are perceived as slow in primary school.

Height is an easily observable phenotype, cognition is massively more complex and dependent on many genes that are not well understood. Furthermore, cognitive ability is heavily dependent on upbringing, and cognitive ability develops at different rates for different people.

Not to say that the school system should be cookie cutter, but we in no way have enough knowledge about human cognition to determine a child's career path because of their performance in kindergarten.

There are a handful of truly short players who've demonstrated it's possible to play in the league without being tall. Is there a material difference between 4'8" and 5'3" when your opponents are 6'11"+?

At that point, probably not.

Assuming a person is healthy, there's nothing that makes playing in the NBA literally impossible.

> Assuming a person is healthy, there's nothing that makes playing in the NBA literally impossible.

Well no, but there's a reason that those short people made it to the NBA, they had other potential that got them there. Mugsy was incredibly fast. If it was all about heart we'd see an equal distribution, unless somehow being taller means you have more heart.

Mugsy was fast because he worked hard to be fast, not because he was born with "fastness".

So it was only one short guy who wanted it and a bunch of tall ones?

One? No. There are other short players in the NBA.

You're right, there have been 25 guys 5'9" and under. There are 494 players in the opening day roster for 2018-2019. I guess the little guys just lack the desire to get in there.

Desire? No. Grit? Probably.

The advantage in basketball frequently oscillates between big/slow and small/fast. The best teams always have a mix.

Mugsy choose to capitalize on his "small and fast" talent. It's coaches who make the decision to augment teams with speed.

It's not impossible, it's just highly unlikely. Muggsy Bogues is the extreme outlier. Most NBA players in the history of the game are above average height, despite tons of shorter people having similar access to playing the sport.

It's predictive, just not enough to make decisions on. You're not saying we don't let anyone under 6' play basketball, are you?

No, they are saying that in all likelihood they don't the physical ability to play the game.

All likelihood? Maybe. Literally possible/not? No.

Of course not. I'm saying that being taller than average is an important physical attribute to playing in the NBA. Of course you have to practice/play enough to have the necessary skill level, and there are other factors that matter. If you're under 6', then those other factors need to make up for the height disadvantage.

Sure, and I'm saying that those other factors aren't genetic.

Form follows function. Basketball's rules favor taller people. If the national sport was limbo or hide and seek, we'd have different stars. Conflating a sport's popularity with moral approval of eugenicism, even obliquely in "JAQ" sense is ... Troubling.

Like those moments where we cured previously incurable genetic diseases, and understood evolution as one of the most important advances in biology?

Twisted... that's not what the OP is suggesting.

The article says don't practice or work harder... your talent may be enough.

It very explicitly does not say that. It says that practice without talent will not make you the expert you want to be.

Anything can be taken to extremes. Ultimately one cannot deny the reality that genetics really do actually matter.

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