Definition of playing hard

I want to start a seperate thread on what playing hard actually means. In my mind, playing hard is probably the greatest skill a player can have, and it is not an either/or option.

Playing hard means playing to the very best of your ability at that moment in time. No player in the history of the game has ever played hard 100% of the time. Let me give you an example of Michael Jordan, there's a famous video clip of Jordan trash talking Mutombo during Mutumbo's rookie season when Jordan shot a free throw with his eyes closed. That to me is an example of not playing hard, no matter how good Jordan is at shooting free throws with his eyes closed, his ft% is going to be less than with his eyes open, so at that moment in time he was not playing hard.

Here are some situations that triggers players to not play hard.

- blowout game where one team is leading by huge score
- very close game in a pressure situation where a player becomes "tense"
- games in the regular season that does not affect standings
- games with huge media attention
- games with no media attention
- situations where the player has asked for a trade
- situations where a player is not paid what he thinks he's worth(bonzi)
- situations where a player disagrees with his coach
- a game situation where a player is matched up against someone who is vastly supeior
- a game situation where a player is matched up against someone who is vastly inferior
- a game situation where a player just got embarrased and he will sacrifice his 100% game to engage in a 1 on 1 battle.

There are just some of the situations where it will trigger players to "not play hard", the best players in the league will be playing hard a much greater % of the time than average players. Also most players will learn how to play harder as they become more experienced, like all those jordan clips were earlier on in his career, I don't think you will find any clips of him not playing hard during his second three-peat.