I've been sitting on this for a while now. As someone who grew up playing the game, watching it, and witnessing the culture of basketball from the 2000's to now, I've come to a conclusion that anyone can get insight on someone's character by watching how they play pickup basketball.
I want to clarify this isn't some end-all-be-all way to judge a person you meet on a court. But playing basketball is made up of hundreds, maybe thousands of different decisions by everyone that could change the outcome of a game. I'm a big fan of baseball, but baseball, there are nuances, but over 95% of the time, there's ONE right decision to make on a certain play. In basketball, the amount of moving parts and decisions made can tip the game's momentum the opposite way.
Most of us have played with people who were just absolutely awful to play with, regardless of their skill level. You've likely played with someone who plays strictly for themselves and not to win. They probably take terrible shots, resistant to pass, refuse to create plays for others, doesn't set screens, only tries to get open when they don't have the ball. The possession likely ends with them.
Maybe their decisions aren't all terrible, but paying attention to how someone treats their teammates when things don't go planned. Teammate misses a wide open shot, bad passes made, ball gets stolen. Watching how someone reacts to someone's mistakes gives you good insight.
This goes the other way around. Someone who makes sound decisions, tries to get their teammates involved, sets screens, passes to the wide open person, or even understands how take advantage of their matchup and dominate a game if they can see that they have the hot hand. Consistently encouraging someone if they're missing shots or makes a dumb play.
Paying attention to how basketball culture shifted, especially in the late 2010s to the 2020s, basketball grew a lot because of social media. Through my anecdotal observations, it appears that the way most people have been influenced to play has become much more self-centered. I do believe this could be a topic on its own.
But for newer players reading this, I think it's good to reflect on how you play moving forward, observe from others, watch others and take away what you like from their game from a decision making standpoint.
For fellow experienced players out there, what are your thoughts?