Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #08 Snippet | The "Eye Test" is Dead (And Here’s Why)
Transcript
- Black Box Theory: ⁓ he should have, his 48th year was on Apple. I'm not trying to hear none of that, bro. I'm not trying to hear none of that. Kobe wouldn't have did that. Kobe wouldn't have done none of that, bro. Kobe would have went out and won the game, got the record. Yeah, bro. That's what I'm bro. People are so like, and I hate how discourse has become around basketball and all sports. Everything is so like, stats driven now. Everything is so like, analytical, efficiency, true suiting percentage. It's all this nerd, like, Excel sheet stats. And it's like, I'm cool. Obviously, stats are good for when you need data driven evidence to prove something. But when that's your only argument every single time, bro, I feel like when you're having objective basketball conversations, it has to be a mix. accolades of eye tests just watching someone on the court and seeing if they are gifted and just really good at basketball and then stats stats to never be the one and only like like bro like Who cares? 8 3 points, bro Yeah. I feel like, you know, like back to your point, like people, can't hate on Bam and then like Dwayne Wade, who actually I think is one of the most foul baiting players of all time, like statistically, I love Dwayne Wade's game. Like ⁓ Wade's, ⁓ me, I think he's consensus third best shooting guard of all time. But like Dwayne Wade is, he's a dog. Like I love everything about his game. And you know, like if your name's not James Harden or Shai Gil Gilgeous-Alexander just Alexander, ⁓ I'm cool with it. anything. Those guys for some reason, I just I know they don't foul bait as much, especially statistically they don't... Statistically they're not the top, the worst are like... Cool. Statistically they don't but if you watch the games in the way that SGA gets fouls, bro, it is freaking ⁓ it's like granted actually I think is as had one of the best point guard seasons I've ever seen back to back. I think he's the Topping player in the league like his talent undeniable but like like I said, you can't root for him in the same breath and then hit on bad because it's just like it just doesn't make sense to me bro, and it's like ⁓ yeah, nah, it's cooked. Hit on them, yeah. Or if you like James Harden, prom James Harden. Yeah, like, come on, bro. It's like they don't even play the same brand of basketball either. Like, Bam is a big, they just can't guard him, bro. Like he goes up in the paint. He's not doing step back threes fouling for like, he granted he did take like 22 threes, but this is like, and the whole, and the thing I really hated was just the Kobe fans trying to defend this. Like their logic just makes no sense to me because some way in their mind, like, you'll compare Kobe's five championships to Lebron's four and they say, ⁓ no, five is greater than four. But then when you compare Bams, 83 to his, 81, it's none of those. 81 is bigger because he had a harder fault. It's like, people pick and choose arguments when it fits their narrative and when it makes their argument look more justified. But when it really doesn't make sense, they have a harder time actually flipping that and being objective about it. So you just have to understand when you're dealing with somebody who can't see past the fact that their favorite player's record got broken. And when you're talking to somebody who's just an actual basketball fan and enjoy seeing like, Yeah. momentous things like this actually happened. Like yeah, like, and if you actually go back and watch the game, watch his highlights, he was frying. Like the fourth quarter, you can debate about how that went around. Like there were some questionable things like with the heat filing, with the Wizards, like that. Okay. I get it. But them first two quarters, bro, he was straight killin, bro. Good hoops. BLEH And everybody does that too, We've all seen Yanis threw the ball off the backboard to get the extra rebound. Yeah, like everybody's that path everybody does this and that but it's the fact that it's your favorite players record that got broken. Now it's a problem about ethics. Now it's a problem about what's real basketball and what's not. And I think all the real Hoopers know, like people who really play, even if you're not a Hooper, if you played sport, you played any level of organized sport, not only do you respect this, but you understand like how challenging it even is to accomplish this feat. And if you're a Hooper, you like good ball. you can just see, like back to what Michael said, like people trying to compare everything with stats, like Jimmy High Roller. Yes, I'm sure a lot of us still like watch the video every now and then, or like grew up watching his videos. Like you... I was a strong. And even if you watch the videos, he goes through all the stats. He always has a graph or a visual and a bunch of stuff. But at the end of the video, he's always basically saying like, it's really still difficult to tell. Like there's no real way to categorize or analyze all this stuff. So pretty much basketball. Yes, the game has changed. This is the game that they want. They want high scoring. These records are going to be broken because that's the way the NBA is set up now. But at the end of the day, if you know ball and you like good ball, like that's That's you're here for. you can tell by the eye test, like, who's tough. Like, there's a lot of tough dudes from the NBA who are not considered all time greats because they didn't achieve accolades, they didn't do this, didn't do that. But they're tough and everyone knows that they're killers on the court. And you got to remember, it's a business, right? They needed this to happen. They needed BAM to hit 83. They needed people to talk about the stuff. Playoffs are coming up. March Madness is heating up, so there's going to be split viewership a little bit there. So, you know what saying? ⁓ Thank It's by design.