Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 10:30 am  |  129 responses

LeBron James: Shane Battier the Smartest Player and Person in Basketball


Shane Battier’s basketball skills may not impress all that much, but his mind is something to behold. Just ask teammate LeBron James. From Fox Sports: “If Miami Heat players need a question answered, they turn to Battier, their versatile forward — versatile, that is, with his knowledge. ‘He’s probably the No. 1 smartest basketball player and person I’ve been around,’ said Heat forward LeBron James. ‘He knows everything.’ The savvy Battier obviously knows basketball. He can dabble quite well in history, math, finance and religion. After all, Battier was a religion major at Duke. [...] It’s no wonder, then, when the Sporting News in 2010 did a list of the top 20 smartest athletes, Battier ranked No. 7. That was tops among NBA players … But does Battier believe he’s the smartest guy in the NBA? ‘Intelligence is an esoteric measurement,’ he said. ‘I don’t know. I’m smart, but I don’t know about the smartest.’ Well, James thinks so. So does Miami center Joel Anthony. ‘That is no surprise,’ Anthony said of Battier’s ranking. ‘His basketball IQ is off the charts in terms of understanding situations and being able to analyze all the different situations on the court. Even off the court. If there’s like a general question, everybody will look to Shane like, ‘You know the answer to this? ‘ Battier usually does. On the court, Battier is one of the NBA’s top defenders, even though he says, ‘There have been numerous articles sort of degrading my athletic ability.’”

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  • T-Money

    shutup, that was funny as hell! haha, i thought exactly what allenp said but posting it was a bit douchy.

  • Paul H

    I actually think he used the word incorrectly. In all likelihood he just reached for the first semi-obscure word he could and threw It In for a bit of ego stroking.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/01/post-up-23/ Allenp

    It was douchey. I fully admit this.
    Mea culpa. And shutup’s response was funny. I ain’t perfect, and never claimed to be.
    Just always right.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/01/post-up-23/ Allenp

    Paul H, why do you think he used it incorrectly. Intelligence is a nebulous concept, based more on cultural norms than on any set truth.

  • bike

    If you gave all nba players an I.Q. test, my money would be on Jeremy Lin to score the highest. And I would bet that Kenyon Martin would score pretty low.

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    ^Racist…

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    Just rufflin feathers. Ignore me haha. Oh wait… we don’t use the ignore option on the internet, just remembered.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    IQ tests are fun.

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    Kenyon Martin graduated from the University of Cincinnati.
    He’s not as dumb as he looks…and acts.

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    ^There’s allot of stupid smart people…

  • LA Huey

    bike, my money is on DeShawn Stevenson to score the lowest on that test.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    oh really Lakeshow, a lot of stupid smart people huh?

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    And I would love to take a standardized test with Carlos Boozer. I just feel like that would be a great life experience.

  • Paul H

    Allenp, I would agree that intelligence Is something which is quite to judge and define. I was simply saying that I, nor anyone I have heard use the word, would use It the way Shane did. I think he came off egotistical and pretentious. Much like yourself.

  • LA Huey

    I’ll take Derrick Rose’s test for him.

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    Yes… This news to you nbk? You have never met someone who can read a book and give you a detailed description of everything in it. Then you ask them something basic like how to add oil to a car and they don’t know even know where the hell to start? Surprised you have never encountered this. Hence the term “street smart” as opposed to “book smart”.

  • Paul H

    *difficult

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    I don’t think you understand the difference between smart and learned.

  • bike

    LA Huey–can’t disagree with ya on that! LOL

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    Oh, so you’re saying Kenyon Martin is book smart but not street smart. Gotcha. Lol…

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    Nope, I do. I don’t think you understand that there are different kinds of smart.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    lol there aren’t different kinds of smart. if you take someone with a far above average intelligence they will learn faster in every environment then someone of lower intelligence. It’s just a matter of what you have been exposed too. That’s like saying kids that don’t understand how to add and subtract are stupid. While the people who have been doing addition and subtraction their whole lives are geniuses. It’s just a matter of exposure, not a different kind of “smarts”. – and ofcourse I’ve heard the phrase street smart and book smart. Doesn’t mean they actually represent intelligence.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    If you want smart, look no further than Darko Milicic…”I just keep it”

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/01/post-up-23/ Allenp

    Shane comes off as a cat who is always laughing at how seriously other people take sports all the time. And, how little thinking they do about other stuff.
    I’m not a Battier fan, but he seems like a cat who is secure in who he is and what he thinks. I respect that about any man.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Wayno

    I’ll chime in for a moment though. I know plenty of college graduates who are in fact very stupid people, so to incinuate that Kenyon Martin is smart just because he went to college is silly…not saying he is or isn’t because I don’t know the dude.

  • shutup

    oh lawd, as for esoteric he didnt use it correctly, you dont have to be smart to see that someone is smart. as for Voltaire i appreciate his candid(e) view on life although I prefer Hesse myself or even Heinlein. As for Anderson Silva he is the greatest fighter the UFC has ever seen, I admit after the Maia fight I was disappointed but Silva had a right to be frustrated, why expose yourself to get caught in something stupid like a flying heel hook when you already won the fight and play into him trying to pull guard or throw himself on the ground. I cant stand GSP much like Sonnen most of their recent matches have gone to decision, I rather see decisive wins not someone who relies on points. as for the different kind of smarts debate, your completely off base NBK (no surprise)an idiot savant destroys your definition and narrow view of intelligence along with the fact that there are child prodigies which havent been exposed to anything but can still be classified as genius. Back to our regularly scheduled programming………

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Graduating from any school is a representation of work ethic more then intelligence. Atleast that’s how I feel.

  • MUBWAR

    DeShawn Lincoln tattoo on his neck tells you everything you need to know about his level of intelligence

  • shutup

    Just one more point; exposure would imply wisdom not intelligence.

  • shutup

    @NBK -counterpoint graduation doesnt imply work ethic at all, have you ever heard of honorary degrees? or teachers who pass students based on social standing, such as athletes? or cheaters that have others take their online classes for them, seeing as I paid my way through school writing term papers for the other basketball players and was on the receiving end of a couple A’s myself for extracurricular activities, your theory has a few flaws in it.

  • bike

    How about the dumbest player in the history of the nba? My vote goes to Chris Washburn (anyone remember him? hint:he was once asked how he got profecient with both hands and he responded that he was ‘Amphibious’).
    That poor soul had the IQ of a houseplant.

  • bike

    ^proficient. That was dumb.

  • bike

    ^proficient

  • Sparker

    yawn. by his intentional use of the word “esoteric,” he was treating the question with the ironic detachment it deserved. he even dumbed down his discussion of “smart,” and a lot of you guys still ended up feeling threatened by him. hilarious… but only to the esoteric few.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    shutup, idk if you are really that bad at reading or your frustration with me really clouds your judgement, but I’m not entertaining your laughable inability to counter my arguments.

  • http://media.photobucket.com/image/i%20do%20believe%20i%20shat%20my%20pantaloons/tesulliv/ah-good-sir-i-do-believe-i-have-shat-in-my-pantaloons.jpg LakeShow

    Sparker, pulling his best AllenP impression. Nice. Yawn, I do say good sir!
    Click me for a pic of what AllenP looked like as a baby. (A white baby that is)

  • Paul H

    @Sparker. He clearly is not enough to intimidate such a sparkling intellect as the one you were lucky enough to be endowed with. Well done big lad.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/01/post-up-23/ Allenp

    ^I’m starting to feel a little concerned. You are expending a lot of energy little buddy.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    what people do or don’t know how to do doesn’t represent their intelligence. It represents their exposure to actions/knowledge that can be learned. How fast they learn and understand information is the only representation of intelligence with any meaning.
    .
    .

    - noun 1. ability to learn, reason, and understand

  • LA Huey

    bike, I’m still going to hand that crown to DeShawn.

  • Paul H

    @Allenp I addressed one point leveled by your good self and one indirectly aimed at a lot of people in the post. I’m actually only on the site to distract myself from a Friday night on the booze.

  • Sparker

    ah, paul. a fine display of high sarcasm. and pairing “sparking” with “sparker.” you alliterative fellow, you.

  • Paul H

    I try.

  • http://media.photobucket.com/image/i%20do%20believe%20i%20shat%20my%20pantaloons/tesulliv/ah-good-sir-i-do-believe-i-have-shat-in-my-pantaloons.jpg LakeShow

    Your the only person on the entire internet I fervently don’t like right now Allen. So I got a special spot in my heart for you. I only got a couple more anti-Allen comments in me for the day though.

  • http://media.photobucket.com/image/i%20do%20believe%20i%20shat%20my%20pantaloons/tesulliv/ah-good-sir-i-do-believe-i-have-shat-in-my-pantaloons.jpg LakeShow

    Pauly: He was aiming that at me.

  • LA Huey

    This could be a LeBron-related article that gets 100 comments that have nothing to do with LeBron (a first?). I love that the SLAMily aint got ish to do on Fridays.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/01/post-up-23/ Allenp

    Knock yourself out Lakeshow. But since this is the internet, and nothing here really matter, as you’ve said, seems a little strange to be fervent about anything.
    And Paul that comment was for Lakeshow.
    And this comment is for everybody who didn’t use Google yet.
    esoteric
    1
    a : designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone b : requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to a small group ; broadly : difficult to understand
    2
    a : limited to a small circle b : private, confidential
    3
    : of special, rare, or unusual interest

  • shutup

    98

  • shutup

    99

  • shutup

    pencils down, everybody put your thesauri away, and lets resume the Dwight Howards a whiny b!tch debate jkjkjkjk. I’m going to the park and imma bust the first white persons a$$ on the court I see and pretend its NBK.

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