Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I have a pretty strong opinion about this but most disagree.

Is an NBA team favored to beat a typical large high school baseball team playing baseball? They have three days to practice. Assume no flukey situations like a super pitcher for either side.

Making note of the post below me, I need to edit this to stipulate that the NBA team has only American players.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

The high school team wins easily, particularly given the recent influx of European NBA players.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

If Michael Jordan is any indication, I'm going for the HS team.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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If Michael Jordan is any indication, I'm going for the HS team.

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Perhaps you were completely joking. I'm no baseball expert but I would assume a .200 hitter in the minors would be the best player on most high school teams.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I would give the edge to the NBA team. I like a pro athelete versus a team of 16-18 year old non-super stars.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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Perhaps you were completely joking. I'm no baseball expert but I would assume a .200 hitter in the minors would be the best player on most high school teams.

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But Michael Jordan is one of the best athletes ever and grew up playing baseball and excelled at it. You can't say the same about Dirk Nowitzki.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

Three days to practice for an NBA team should be plenty to beat a HS team. Even if the guys can hardly hit they'll have a major speed advantage on defense and running the bases.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I think the highschool baseball team would win this.

The basketballers are professional athletes, so they might have better discipline, and definitely are fitter and stronger.

However their size would be a big disadvantage, for batting, pitcher and catcher, and to a minor extent throwing the ball for the fielders.

The strikezone of those tall people is just too large, the catcher too slow in throwing the ball if he needs to stand up first, all basketballers too slow in throwing the balls because of their exceptionally long arms.

Btw, as a European I dont really have a clue about baseball or basketball [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

Over-tall NBA players are very badly suited to baseball. They will have no pitcher with experience.

Even a high school team will generally have a pretty solid pitcher with lots of experience. HS wins easily.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

The baseball team wins easily. The NBA's pitcher will be walking everyone.

___1___

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I agree that the crux of this is the NBA pitcher. I think the high school team would knock him around a lot.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I would say no, mostly due to muscle memory.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

the nba's defense would be bad but their offense and sheer power just might make up for it. i think it comes down to the # of errors and the ability of the nba pitcher vs. the number of homeruns hit by the nba team.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

My vote is the High School baseball team. Mainly because there are only 3 days to develop a skill based talent. Baseball does not necessarily require athletic ability to suceed at hitting or pitching. The ability to do those two fundamental elements of baseball...should require at least a few weeks. The potential is higher with the basketball guys except baseball requires a skill that isn't necessarily athletic based.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

The odds of the NBA players winning are approximately equal to the odds of them having at least one guy on their team that can throw strikes. A team of high school all-stars, even for a county or something, would be a different story.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

high school baseball players. this really isnt close.

a much better question would be versus a high school lacrosse team.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

[ QUOTE ]
high school baseball players. this really isnt close.

a much better question would be versus a high school lacrosse team.

[/ QUOTE ]if it was lacrosse i think about 2% of people would bet on the high school team.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

Not very well thought through. Baseball team, no contest. In my experience, there is at least 1 minor-league calibre player on most mid-high ability highschool baseball teams. Much of going pro has to do more with passion/desire than sheer ability.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

If the high school pitcher can throw a decent curve ball the NBA team has almost no chance. Not to mention that tall (>6'3") guys with long arms will have huge holes in their swings, something I know from personal experience since I grew from 6' at 18 to 6'4" at 22. My armspan is 6'7" and when I first went to a batting cage at my adult height I couldn't believe how hard hitting a basesball had become (especially inside pitches). In order to use my old bats, I had to choke up and stand outside of the batters box to be able to hit any inside pitches. And in the NBA, length is even more important than height, so the NBA players will really suffer here. If the NBA team has a decent pitcher and shortstop they may be able to keep the score respectable. Infield defense would be a major problem for the NBA team since 2b is an extremely difficult position for very tall guys to play, they won't have the lateral agility necessary to play the position. SS is also tough to play if one is tall, so the starting and backup PGs (the two shortest guys on the team) would be forced to play these two positions giving their manager no flexibility at all.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I think this could go either way. I think the NBA players would obviously have the power, speed, and overall athletic abilty to have an advantage in areas like base running and defense. I also highly doubt that as professional NBA players, they didn't play any baseball growing up. I think most athletes try out a variety of sports. Thus they would have some experience.

But on the other side of the argument...how much athletic ability does barry bonds have? Sure he has some steroid like strength and good hand eye coordination but thats it. So, maybe the NBA players wouldnt benefit much from their athleticism.

My bet would be on the NBA players though based on their advantage in power.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

HS baseball team. Baseball is a very hard sport to play if you don't practice it. Most of the NBA guys probably haven't played baseball since HS, if at all. They'd be lucky if they had one guy who could consistently throw strikes.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

Change the sport to football, and I would pick the NBA team.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

A couple of questions Is this a 9 inning game? Many HS baseball games are only 7 innings. The shorter the game, the higher the chance that a team will be able to get by with only one/two pitcher/s.
Second, does the NBA team get to use its active roster (12 players) or it's whole roster of 15 players?


If it's a 12 man NBA roster and a 9 inning game I think the HS kids (with a roster of 20+ kids) would win fairly easily. Here's why:

Pitching: To get through nine innings, a Major league team uses (I'm assuming) an average of over 3 pitchers, these are the best pitchers in the world so saying that the NBAers would need 3 is generous. So with a 12 man roster, they need least three guys who can pitch; I think it is likely that they would have one guy who can throw strikes with some speed, they would be fortunate to have two and it's nearly impossible that they would have three. Also, it's hard to learn how to throw breaking balls, and change-ups. Even if these guys could hit the zone, they will be throwing batting practice. The HS team is set up to have several pitchers so they will be equipt to handle one game.
They may be able to get away with 2 pitchers in a 7 inning game.

Defense: Fielding is all about discipline and experience. Athleticism helps but it really comes down to drilling and I don't think 3 days is enough time to really learn to field well.

Hitting has been covered pretty well so I'll skip it. I will add that hitting a baseball is hard to pick up if you've been away from it for awhile.

Just a few ideas on an interesting quesion.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

The HS team would destroy the NBA team without question. Even if the NBA team has a guy that can throw strikes, if the HS guys can put the ball in play they are rarely going to be thrown out. Also the best pitcher at a large highschool will have at least a reasonable breaking ball which would be extremely hard for the NBA guys to hit. I played baseball at a large high school and I can not imagine a team of any athletes with no baseball experience being able to beat us on 3 days of practice. Baseball is not nearly as much about athleticism as it is about mechanics. Think about guys like Cecil Fielder, David Wells, and John Kruk. I don't think their athleticism got them to the Major League.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

David,

No, of course not.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

A NHL-team would have had a better chance than a NBA-team. Not that they would have stood a chance either because of the pitcher.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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A NHL-team would have had a better chance than a NBA-team. Not that they would have stood a chance either because of the pitcher.

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speaking of NHL teams.

Is an NBA team favored to beat a typical team of 11 year olds playing ice hockey? They have three days to practice. Assume no flukey situations like a super goalie for either side.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

No, 11-year olds are far too good skaters for the NBAs. There is no way the NBA-players would be able to stop them without getting a penalty. However, it will be hard for the 11-year olds to get the puck from the NBAs but they are probably so crappy that they will fall and lose the puck enough times for the youngsters to win. The NBAs wouldn't win a single faceoff either which is a big factor.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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The NBAs wouldn't win a single faceoff either which is a big factor.

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i don't know about the rest of your post, but you're dead wrong here. the NBA players would probably win the majority of faceoffs due to sheer strength.

but faceoffs won't influence the result significantly anyway with a bunch of crappy players.

anyway, sorry for derailing the thread. just thought the question would be interesting when applied to hockey.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I don't agree, in face-offs it mostly about getting first to the puck. Those guys are to crappy to have great control over the puck in a face-off situation so they will just hit the puck in the air and who ever gets it first will win the face-off. However I realize that I might be wrong because I didn't think about the range of the NBA-players. And I think that it is in a game like this where both teams will have severe problems in winning back the puck from the other side that face-offs is essential. Interesting question however.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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I don't agree, in face-offs it mostly about getting first to the puck.

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yeah. and after the nba player pushes the kid's stick out of the way, he's going to get to the puck first.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I think you are underestimating how hard it is to have proper control of the stick in a stressed situation when having the balance of a 3-day old skater.

My Thoughts
 

I picked the NBA team because I was under the impression that the majority of athletes who make it to the pros in any of the trhee major sports was probably a star in all three sports in high school. That's not true? If it is true the fact that they haven't played the game for a while would be approximately made up for by the fact that they are older and even more athletic. We are talking here about playing 16 and 17 year olds from an average high school.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I remember a while back, ESPN (I think) had a clip of Lebron James trying to take some batting practice with a high school team and literally could not hit a baseball. He was probably about 1 year out of high school. I know it's just one guy, but I think it's fair to assume that most basketball players just don't have the coordination and muscle memory to beat an average high school team. 3 days of practice would be beneficial to the NBA team but not enough to beat the HS baseball team. Baseball is kind of a funny sport as far as the skill set goes (there's a good chance this was DS's reasoning for choosing baseball) in that two of the major skills-- hitting a baseball and throwing a baseball, just do not come naturally whatsoever. I'm sure you could hand select individual players from the NBA who were not long out of competitive high school baseball, give them a bit of practice, and they would win. But your average NBA team? (almost) no chance.

Take 30 NBA players against 30 high school football players and have them duke it out on the gridiron, and I'd say the NBA team by a landslide.

Re: My Thoughts
 

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I picked the NBA team because I was under the impression that the majority of athletes who make it to the pros in any of the trhee major sports was probably a star in all three sports in high school. That's not true? If it is true the fact that they haven't played the game for a while would be approximately made up for by the fact that they are older and even more athletic. We are talking here about playing 16 and 17 year olds from an average high school.

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It's probably true in many cases, I might be focusing a bit to much on the huge players like Shaq and other 2.16m players etc who by their enormous size will be somewhat handicaped in other sports because lack of speed and agility.

Re: My Thoughts
 

[ QUOTE ]
I picked the NBA team because I was under the impression that the majority of athletes who make it to the pros in any of the trhee major sports was probably a star in all three sports in high school. That's not true? If it is true the fact that they haven't played the game for a while would be approximately made up for by the fact that they are older and even more athletic. We are talking here about playing 16 and 17 year olds from an average high school.

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This is really not true at all anymore. Coaches usually put a lot of pressure on top tier athletes to not stray from their chosen sport, generally because of injuries.

Also, Baseball is an extremely specialized sport. While LeBron James could dominate a sport like volleyball or make a great soccer goalkeeper without much practice, baseball doesnt work like that. I'm a pretty good all around athlete and recently tried to play a baseball pickup game. I have almost no baseball experience. While I was probably the best soccer, basketball, and football player, I was in the bottom 10% at baseball. These werent even highschool level baseball players.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

I think the NBA team would win easily.

Average high school baseball teams pretty much suck. I think there's a good chance that someone on the basketball team will have a 90+ mph fastball, and that alone is enough to shut out an average HS baseball team.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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Average high school baseball teams pretty much suck. I think there's a good chance that someone on the basketball team will have a 90+ mph fastball, and that alone is enough to shut out an average HS baseball team.

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90 MPH means nothing when it never gets near the strike zone.

Anyway, it's gotta be the HS team, and I don't really think it's close. If you've ever seen one of those ESPN specials where athletes from, say, the NFL, compete in other sports-related contests, the majority suck at hitting a baseball. And that's batting practice, even the 4th pitcher on an average high school team has much better stuff than that.

Also, other people have mentioned it, but the skills required to excel at baseball aren't as correlated with raw athleticism as they are in the NBA or NFL. When a guy becomes fat in the NBA, he becomes a laughingstock. When a guy becomes fat in the majors, it has relatively less effect as long as he can still hit the ball out of the park (John Kruk, Babe Ruth, probably Ryan Howard in 10 years).

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

the answer is in the eyes.

basketball players need "wide" eyes. they need to see the whole floor, using their peripheral vision to its fullest.

baseball players need "narrow" eyes to see the pitch.

it's very hard to do both well.

Re: Hypothetical Sports Contest #2
 

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The HS team would destroy the NBA team without question. Even if the NBA team has a guy that can throw strikes, if the HS guys can put the ball in play they are rarely going to be thrown out. Also the best pitcher at a large highschool will have at least a reasonable breaking ball which would be extremely hard for the NBA guys to hit. I played baseball at a large high school and I can not imagine a team of any athletes with no baseball experience being able to beat us on 3 days of practice. Baseball is not nearly as much about athleticism as it is about mechanics. Think about guys like Cecil Fielder, David Wells, and John Kruk. I don't think their athleticism got them to the Major League.

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I don't disagree with your post.

But in high school, Cecil Fielder was actually all-state in football and basketball.