People have no idea how good "mediocre" guys in top level sports really are. Each of these players would probably kill any amateur team playing alone.

Remind me of Brian Scalabrine, who was never more than a role player, beating a high school player 11-0 _at the age of 43_.

If I recall correctly, he also once said something to the effect that he's closer to Kobe in talent than 99% of the world is to [Scalabrine].

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2021/03/24/brian-scalabrine...

I came here to see if someone brought up Scalabrine. Yes, you can find videos of him playing pickup with supposed 'good' HS stars and he destroys them. The quote was "I'm way closer to LeBron than you are to me."

All NBA players are insanely good. And the best NBA players are so good it's hard to comprehend. There's another video of a retired MJ coming out and destroying a new Bulls player who was talking trash. MJ never even took off his sweats.

Or look at shooting...uncovered NBA players almost never miss. Look up Gilbert Arenas shooting half court shots for practice - almost never misses. Or Steph Curry from anywhere on the court.

The real quote is I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me.

I will point out Scal was highly touted by other members of those Celtics teams as being an excellent 1:1 player, not to discount what you’re saying about him being head and shoulders above every amateur in the world, but more pointing out he’s far from the least skilled player to have reached the NBA

It's obviously mediocre relative to the nba

Mediocre means literally average and it's obvious than in any normal distribution most players will fall in that category.

Mediocre - first link in search

Mediocre - of only moderate quality; not very good.

Yeah, normal distribution again will tell you that at that level most players are not very good but average.

Honestly, "mediocre" (i.e. really insanely stupid good but not as good as the "great" players) but on the roster for an extended period of time is awesome. I'd imagine it's like being L5 at Google...but with way more money