Showing up for work is the first requisite. Performance comes next. Can’t have the 2nd w/o the 1st.
I don’t understand how anyone continues to try debate this.
Given that you've dug in your heels to defend a
bon mot, I don't either, but here's my bottom line:
There are about 7.9 billion people on the planet. Of those 7.9 billion people, approximately 7.9 billion have been excluded from getting an NBA contract because, regardless of their availability, they do not have the talent and/or athleticism to play in the NBA.
That leaves about, say, a couple of thousand people left with the talent and athleticism requisite to play in the NBA. (30 NBA teams * 15 man roster ~= 450 players, but we should assume that there are international players and G-Leaguers who have the chops and miss the cut due to max roster considerations but could replace other bottom-tier NBA players in a pinch.) Of those couple of thousand people, some of them (like Greg Oden, and perhaps like Marvin Bagley, though the jury is still out on the latter) are unable to play due to chronic or repeated injuries or other non-injury reasons ("unavailable"), and end up out of the NBA. The number of players who fit this description at any given time is small, but we can be generous and say it's maybe 100 out of that few thousand.
So, we have the following:
7.9 billion people not in the NBA due to lack of talent and athleticism
100 people with sufficient talent and athleticism not in the NBA due to lack of availability
I can tell you which of these traits I think is the most important, and it's not the one accounting for 0.0000013% of people not being in the NBA.
Availability is certainly important, but in the context of the NBA, availability is only important if you already have the talent and athleticism to cut it. There are literally billions of people who would be willing and able at an NBA league minimum salary to "show up for work" at a higher rate of availability than Marvin Bagley but are not remotely under consideration for an NBA contract. Marvin Bagley, as unavailable as he has been, is certainly under consideration for another NBA contract, and will very likely get one of some sort. A clever, cutesy phrase does not make this not so.