Quote – Michael Jordan ~ “Everybody has talent but ability takes hard work”.

Michael Jordan states in this quote that “Everybody has talent but ability takes hard work”. This is coming from arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, but what exactly does he mean? In my opinion when he says everyone has talent I agree and I believe he’s saying we are all born without our own natural talents, like for example some players like mike are born with natural born athleticism and are able to dunk at a very young age. Now this doesn’t automatically mean that your abilities are perfected though , when talking basketball, ability can mean many things, shooting, dribbling, defense, or passing. There are many different aspects that come with the game of basketball and being the perfect player is very hard because many players are great at one thing and mainly focus on improving that skill, like Ben Simmons, he’s an amazing passer and great in the paint, but he can’t shoot and was recently traded from the 76ers because he refused to work on his jumpshot and this affected his team play because they desperately needed a guy who can create his own shot as well as play-make for the team, Simmons has the playmaking part down but he can’t make a 3 for his life.

Another example is Kawhi Leonard, coming into the league he didn’t have a jumpshot but his talent he was drafted for was defense because he was born with a longer wingspan than a regular person and huge hands which make it easier for him to steal the ball. Now in his case it is very different from Ben Simmons, he worked and worked every season until his jumpshot actually became something that people fear, he’s not a guy you want to leave open from 3 and can create his own shot now as well. Now he has his natural talent defensively and built an offense around it making him one of the best two way players in the league. Long story short these two players are similar as they made the NBA because they had talent but so far, only one of these players worked hard to improve their game outside of their strengths but instead by working on and improving their weaknesses, that is what makes a players abilities great,  like our goat MJ he’s great on both sides of the floor improved his jumper and became a deadly threat from the midrange and in the post and when they were battling the “Bad Boy Pistons” and lost because they were physically being “out-muscled” mike went straight back into the gym and bulked so he was ready for the next season series against them and you can bet the next time they faced off the results were a lot different.