Former No. 8 overall pick Joe Alexander has already gone viral for his takes on isolation and delusion, but his latest message might be his most provocative yet. According to Alexander, more reps alone will not make you a professional. If anything, obsessing over repetition without understanding the deeper structure of the game can trap players in mediocrity.
“I played professional basketball for 15 years, and what really got me there was learning to attack the meta of the game itself, not just becoming more fundamental or piling up more repetitions.”
“Now, I worked harder than anyone. I put in the reps. That was my amateur life. But to become a professional, you have to operate differently. You don’t just stack more reps, get better, get better, get better, and eventually arrive. That’s not how it works.”
“You improve, yes. But then there’s a quantum leap. You transcend.”
“That transcendence is what every young player is chasing. It feels mysterious. They ask, how do I make that leap? The answer is this: you stop obsessing over repetitions and start obsessing over attacking the meta of basketball itself.”
“Look at your favorite NBA players. How did they begin their careers? Most of them came in doing things that were considered strange, unconventional, even wrong. Their moves were labeled weird. Their footwork wasn’t textbook. Their style didn’t match what coaches defined as fundamental.”
“Style wins. Style is a disruption of the meta. If you want to attack the meta of basketball, the number one trait you need is courage.”
“Most kids spend their entire amateur careers trying to fit into a system. They follow exactly what coaches say is correct. The right footwork. The right mechanics. The right way to move. They try to blend in and master what already exists.”
“But what nobody says out loud is this: every elite player has a completely unique style that didn’t exist before they brought it into the league. They invented it.”
“They had the courage to bring something new to the court, even when coaches told them it wasn’t fundamental. Even when they were told to adjust their feet, change their form, move differently.
“Instead, they said no. I’m going to attack the structure of the game itself. When you create a style that no one understands, defenders can’t read you. Coaches can’t scheme for you. The league eventually adapts to you. The meta shifts in response to your presence.”
“And that’s the key. You don’t rise to the top by looking at what everyone is doing and simply doing more of it. By the time you’ve spent five or ten years perfecting today’s fundamentals, the game will have evolved. The meta will have shifted.”
“If you want to be at the very top, in basketball or any industry, you have to be ahead of that shift. You need the courage to develop something that is entirely your own. Something that looks slightly wrong at first. Something that feels like it bends the rules.”
“At the same time, you have to be an artist. Your new style can’t reject the game entirely. It has to live inside the ecosystem. It has to function within basketball while subtly rewriting its rules. That’s how you transcend. Not by repeating what already works, but by reshaping what works in the first place.”
Alexander is not dismissing hard work. He makes it clear that his amateur life was built on relentless repetition. He outworked people. He lived in the gym. But he argues that the leap from good to professional requires something different. It requires transcendence. In his words, there is a quantum leap that separates high-level amateurs from NBA players.
That leap, he believes, comes from disrupting the ‘meta’ of basketball rather than mastering what already exists.
Look at the league’s most influential stars, and there is evidence to support his point. Dirk Nowitzki’s one-legged fadeaway was once considered awkward and unconventional before it became unguardable. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook rewrote how big men could dominate. Stephen Curry turned pull-up three-point shooting from a risky gamble into the foundation of modern offense.
James Harden weaponized the step-back in ways defenders were not prepared for. Magic Johnson proved that a 6-foot-9 point guard could control the game. Hakeem Olajuwon’s Dream Shake blended grace and deception. Carmelo Anthony leaned into mid-range scoring artistry. Victor Wembanyama is redefining how a 7-foot-4 player operates on the perimeter.
None of those styles was textbook when they emerged. In fact, many were criticized early on.
To attack the meta, he says, requires courage. It means embracing a style that may look slightly wrong at first. It means resisting constant correction. It means becoming an artist within the ecosystem of basketball rather than a replica of what coaches already approve.
Alexander’s own NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls was brief, but his 15-year professional run across international leagues suggests he found ways to survive in evolving systems. His philosophy may not guarantee superstardom, but it highlights a truth that many overlook.
In a sport that constantly evolves, simply doing more of what everyone else is doing rarely creates separation. According to Alexander, the real path to the NBA is not just repetition; it is reinvention.
