The Rising Tide of Lineage in Basketball – and the difficulty of Reaching the Pantheon

It’s become a running (yet true) joke on social media that immediately after the birth of your child it's necessary to induct them into a super soldier program of sorts to produce the next great sporting savant.

Whether its Project Mbappe, Wembanyama or more recently Shohei Ohtani after he put pen to paper on a $700 million contract it underpins a dream that many if not all parents have - to see their child on the biggest stage playing the biggest sports.

Yet the chances of such an idealised Elysium are seldom and to prove that let's place our spotlight upon the game of basketball and by extension the NBA. There are many roots to becoming a professional basketballer but to reach the National Basketball Association there’s only a select amount of routes you can take. The foremost option is playing at a notable high school with exposure and then showcasing yourself on the AAU circuit.

The issue with this is the absurd amount of money this all costs. The most notable high schools with the best basketball programs at that level are typically private schools which have admissions fees that can range from $5,000 a year to $25,000, and the AAU circuit takes you around the US requiring a large expenditure on flights, petrol and of course time.

If your child isn’t showing the necessary potential to achieve that NBA dream and take a bite at that $15 million average salary it's typically in the best interest of the parent to reign it in as the expenditure doesn’t project to equate to the eventual outcome.

Alternatively, there is a select group of people where such bureaucracy either doesn’t exist or is a complete non-factor when pursuing a basketball dream for their child. Former NBA stalwarts have given a wave to a churning conveyor belt of extremely talented second-generation players etching their narrative onto the canvas of basketball history. But why and how are we seeing such a consistent production of high-level talent from former players, becoming an NBA player is as likely as winning the Powerball off one ticket so how.

I’ve postulated and broken it down into 3 different rationalities:

-       Formerly being in the league gives their children more connections and networking opportunities whether that be with coaches, teams or even college

-       By having more money (the top player in the NBA gets paid $60 million per year) your child has access to better high schools, training facilities and AAU circuits

-       Players in the NBA are the 0.0001% in the world when it comes to skill level so imagine your parent being the one that shows you the ropes

However, this evolution hasn't been devoid of polemic. Some argue that the influx of legacy players might be blurring the line between meritocracy and favouritism. It begs the question of whether these players are earning their spots based on their abilities or simply benefiting from their family names and wealth of resources. How can a system that already filters out so many due to discrepancy of income face more red tape when it comes to competition?

It elicits similarities to the sport of Formula 1 which due to financial constraints and barriers to entry most drivers in the racers pool originate from insanely rich families, of the 20 drivers of the grid such as Lando Norris and Lance Stroll. The comparison distinguishes a relation between how hard it becoming to access these sports and climb up the ladder to the eventual mantlepiece.

You counteract this with the sport of football where all you need is a ball and somewhere to kick it – you eventually get good enough and you're scouted rather than running around the country trying to get on radars.

Ultimately, whether the rising presence of former players' children in the league represents nepotism or merit is a subjective point of contention— the true question should remain on whether it’s becoming harder to achieve one's dream in this sport. Alas, all conversations will continue to add layers of complexity to the ever-evolving tapestry of professional basketball and sports as we know it.

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