Talent definitely does matter. Michael Jordan trained like a madman it's true - but training didn't make him that tall. Genetic potential fully realized (through effort over time) is that part of the equation.
The reason Jordan will always be better than Kobe, according to Phil Jackson: Jordan's hands are insanely large and allow him to do things later than Kobe because he can grip the ball at any position.
Couldn't Kobe get surgery to fix that?
Wouldn't that be cheating?
Apparently not:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/tennis-star-to-und...
Surgery to improve sporting performance is OK but steroids are not. Weird, huh?
Talent is roughly the ability to learn and apply that learning. So you want people to have 'constant learning', but ignore that they first have to be capable of learning that material at all.