Austin Rivers doubled down on his stupid take about there being 30 NBA players that could go play in the NFL right now. I was thinking about that this morning and here is what I came up with.
If you took the 50 best NBA players, and allowed them to practice for 6 months, they'd still get destroyed by the elite high school programs that put a bunch of P5 players into college every year. I'm talking by 3-4 scores. There is no way the NBA players, as great of athletes as they are, they don't come clsoe to having the skill or size to matchup on either side of the ball. Most of them never played a down of football in their lives. Get a good elite high school team with an OL that averages 300+, a good QB, and a good RB and they'd flat out truck the NBA defense. Conversely, a high school team with DT's, guys that can get in the backfield, and some punishing LB's and they'd break the NBA offense in less than a quarter.
On the other side, if you made a roster of NFL players and put them up against an NBA team, they would lose handily, but they'd look a lot better than an NBA team playing an elite high school football team. Hell, all of the guys you put on that team played high school basketball and spent a whole lot of time in college playing pick up games against their schools basketball team. They'd lose, but they'd represent themselves a lot better than NBA players stepping on to a football field.
While I agree that the transition from basketball to football is the "easier" route because we have seen players like Gates, Graham, Peppers, Gonzalez, etc.. actually do it, but I won't even entertain this stupid "specialization" argument. Those players also played college football, and all were TE's/DE's. There isn't an NBA player in the league that could just come in today and be a "red zone weapon" or a "special teams weapon". Not one. I don't care how tall they are or how high they can jump. An NFL player is going to dominate them where ever they lined up. I don't think an NFL player can make the transition to the NBA either, but I think you can find more of them that will at least look somewhat competent trying to make a team.
If you took the 50 best NBA players, and allowed them to practice for 6 months, they'd still get destroyed by the elite high school programs that put a bunch of P5 players into college every year. I'm talking by 3-4 scores. There is no way the NBA players, as great of athletes as they are, they don't come clsoe to having the skill or size to matchup on either side of the ball. Most of them never played a down of football in their lives. Get a good elite high school team with an OL that averages 300+, a good QB, and a good RB and they'd flat out truck the NBA defense. Conversely, a high school team with DT's, guys that can get in the backfield, and some punishing LB's and they'd break the NBA offense in less than a quarter.
On the other side, if you made a roster of NFL players and put them up against an NBA team, they would lose handily, but they'd look a lot better than an NBA team playing an elite high school football team. Hell, all of the guys you put on that team played high school basketball and spent a whole lot of time in college playing pick up games against their schools basketball team. They'd lose, but they'd represent themselves a lot better than NBA players stepping on to a football field.
While I agree that the transition from basketball to football is the "easier" route because we have seen players like Gates, Graham, Peppers, Gonzalez, etc.. actually do it, but I won't even entertain this stupid "specialization" argument. Those players also played college football, and all were TE's/DE's. There isn't an NBA player in the league that could just come in today and be a "red zone weapon" or a "special teams weapon". Not one. I don't care how tall they are or how high they can jump. An NFL player is going to dominate them where ever they lined up. I don't think an NFL player can make the transition to the NBA either, but I think you can find more of them that will at least look somewhat competent trying to make a team.
