Brandon Ingram Discussion: He Is Who We Thought He Could Be

sirron's got it. in terms of fundamental individual differences, one is about avoidance/minimization of damage and one is about approach/resource attainment. in real life, both can be adaptive. in sports, there's more value in the latter. but in either arena, being overly concerned with what happens if you don't achieve is less optimal than being really interested in what can happen if and when you do.

kuz is all approach, almost to a fault on that end.

ingram is more avoidance-motivated.

lonzo knows how to talk like he's approach-oriented (thanks, dad--who TOTALLY gets this, despite getting NOTHING else about adult life), but he's really like ingram inside, imo: he's scared. look at that FT % (both cases). that's being afraid instead of being excited for an opportunity.

i can't stand james harden, but all that dude thinks about is what he can possibly get and how, and it's how he's successful.

but it's hard to re-wire that stuff.

to extend this far past the scope of current discussion, i think russell is an example of delusional approach-orientation, which is also problematic. a local example would be stephenson.

i could analyze the whole roster if you want!

zubz had the right attitude, then got scared, and he may be screwed.

swagner and hart have exactly the right mindset, but neither is incredibly naturally gifted.

lebron is all. though early in his career he was too concerned with f***ing up to do really great things.

svi's preoccupied like BI.

rondo's insane and fits no category i understand.

kcp is scared but dumb, which is actually sometimes helpful when you're scared.

i need more hobbies.

 

...and loved the "rondo's insane and fits no category i understand."

 

Fear of failure is the best motivator... If that's what BI uses to push himself, we're in good hands.

 

I remember that movie LOL

 

Fear can drive you without taking your focus away. Its when fear starts to consume you that it becomes a major problem. When it starts to cloud your thoughts and makes you hesitate. Just my opinion

 

Analysis Paralysis


Yep, that’s bad.

 

Enjoyed reading this!

 

Having a fear of failure & having a killer instinct aren't mutually exclusive.

 

I’m afraid I’m going to kill people sometimes, so maybe you’re right.

 

so...if it weren't clear before, we've accidentally wandered into things i happen to know something about.

the basic drives underlying "fear of failure" and "killer instinct" are theoretically orthogonal in many models--meaning that you can't predict the value of one in an organism knowing the value of the other. practically, i think they have a slightly negative correlation, in line with real's thoughts here.

but again, i think it's important to delineate between what's good for athletic competition and what's good in daily life. guys like mj, kobe, and lebron are all pretty tough to deal with as regular human beings, and had it not been for their natural gifts for a game that's been monetized, they might have struggled mightily in personal and professional settings.

i agree that the quotes in the piece that started this seem to highlight that ingram's negative emotionality are something of a hindrance to his game. again, not that it can't be overcome...it's just not the typical make up of an nba superstar at the outset. his coaches seemed to recognize this, and it seems like he does. the tricky part is getting past it. some would argue this stuff is VERY basic, like, almost born in.

i could bore you with some of the research, but i'll save that for my students...who probably want to hear about it even less. you're lucky i stopped before wandering into genetic determinants of macaque personality.

 

People call me a d*** all the time, but I try to explain to them that it's not me, it's macaque's personality.

Btw, I'm still shocked that I failed your course bro...I try to apply all the lessons I learned there.

Bbtw, I'm done monkeying around..please continue with the discussion on the research Prof... honestly it's captivating material.