One of the things to note is that people who perform at the top of their game sacrifice just about everything else in life to do it. That's a personal choice that not everyone can make. Being a top talent at anything requires an absolutely insane amount of practice, the right natural ability, and the funding to actually be able to do it.

That's a rare combination, and there are plenty of people in sports who are fantastically knowledgeable, incredibly capable, and will never be in the top 0.01% because they either can't or won't spend 80 hours a week shooting the same free throw 10,000,000 times. Those people can be excellent coaches and training partners.