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JJ Barea in the slot. Unstoppable.

David njoku could probably be a nice 3 and d wing

KD at tight-end on the falcons

I would hope KD has a good insurance policy cause every bone in his body would turn into dust the moment he attempted to catch a ball over the middle.

None of them can touch some of those pro footballers (i.e. soccer). When I watch pro footballers at their peak, i.e. the World Cup, I feel like I am watching gods with superhuman abilities. The sheer full-body machine at work in most acrobatic and intensely strong maneuvering, some of those kicks that flip the whole body into the air like a whale jumping out of the water, that's where I see the most impressive displays of athleticism.

KD at tight-end on the falcons

You seen the hits Gronk used to take right? KD would take one hit and never get up again.

But back to the point, I think they both require very different types of athletes. For one, the NFL is a specialist sport - linemen for example do one very specific job, which requires them to be huge, wide and extremely strong and durable.

A random NFL lineman would out-lift basically any NBA player in history in squat, deadlift and bench - but would have nowhere near the vertical or speed as your average NBA player. Obviously there are outliers to this, your freak athletes and so on.

Very hard to compare completely different sports.

Football players are definitely more athletic. Basketball separates itself by both requiring height as well as skill.

In football if you're simply more athletic than everyone else at every level you will at least make the NFL.

NFL players are better athletes at every height range, besides maybe the ones that include a lot of QB's or kickers.

Ain’t nobody in the NBA blocking Aaron Donald

I would say NFL players are stronger. Athleticism varies player to player, and both games require different skills.

NBA games have less and shorter breaks than football, so NBA players have to exert more energy per game.

I'd still give a slight edge win to NFL players even with my biases towards American football. It's kind of a dumb game. It's like turn-based rugby. And make competitive catch less dangerous.

NFL players are typically better athletes, though I think a lot of NBA players could make the jump if they had that type of training. Same with NFL players and the skill it would have taken to make the NBA.

"Athleticism" is a very broad term, it's not just how high someone can jump or how fast they are in a straight line. It also has to do with strength, power/explosiveness, lateral quickness, endurance etc.

For instance, Jokic can barely jump over a phone book, but he's a very good athlete in other aspects of the game.

Personally, I think Ant is the "best" athlete in the NBA, and I definitely think he could make it in the NFL.

I just had this discussion with a guy on another thread yesterday. Here was my argument:

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You might be surprised to learn that NFL athletes are, on average, much stronger and more explosive than NBA players.

Guys like Joe Ingles would never in a million years scratch the practice squad of an NFL team. And I know that's an extreme example. But there's plenty more guys -- even top tier guys (like James Harden, Jokic, Doncic, and Curry -- who absolutely excel in the NBA but would never make it even close to D1 in college football, let alone the NFL.

To put it bluntly, you actually have it backwards in terms of athleticism.

NBA players do have one thing going for them that would prevent most NFL guys from getting into the league, and that's obviously height. You could also argue that they have on average much more finesse, and that's a big deal too when it comes to basketball. But it's really the combination of those two things -- not athleticism -- that are the real differentiators.

The more I thought about it -- it's probably a stretch to say some of those guys wouldn't go D1, given just how many D1 schools there are. But I stand behind saying that they for sure wouldn't go pro, nor would many of them be one of the top players in a good conference like the SEC.

We often think of NBA players as "explosive" solely because of their highlight reel dunks. But the reality is that only a couple of players on each NBA roster are actually capable of posterizing bigs.

Steph Curry is one of the top 10 players of all time, and the guy can barely dunk. He's quick, but he relies much more on his stamina than his explosiveness.

Lots of guys in the NBA can run up and down the court for 40 minutes a game. But I don't think the average NBA player would stand a chance against the average NFL player in a 40-yard dash (lineman and QBs not included).

It's almost a given that to play in the NFL, you have to be able to rep out a 225-lb bench for multiple reps. (Not that bench pressing is everything, but it's one measurement for overall explosiveness). The least amount of reps EVER performed by a guy at the NFL combine was 1. And one of the best players in the NBA of all time (Durant), couldn't even muster 1 such repetition.

NBA is just a different skillset.

Your KD and Bron comments show the crazy lack of understanding people have on this topic.

KD is nearly 7 foot tall and built like a stick. Literally every defensive player in the NFL could stick a hand in his chest and stop him getting off the line of scrimmage, and that’s before thinking about how injured he’d get after a couple of hits.

You compare LeBron with Calvin Johnson, but Calvin was stronger than LeBron and mikes faster (a 4.4 runner vs LeBron running what, a 4.8?)

Football players are, on average, faster, stronger, better jumpers and more explosive than basketball players. There are dudes in the NFL who are almost Olympic level in track and field, I can’t think of 3 NBA players who were even track and field stars in high school.

Making the NBA is way, way, way harder than making the NFL because you have to be able to master a tough skill (shooting a basketball), but as far as pure athleticism goes the NFL clears.

Zion is considered one of the freakiest athletes in NBA history, yet almost every NFL team has a defensive end who’s built like him while carrying more muscle on their frame and can run faster.

Your KD and Bron comments show the crazy lack of understanding people have on this topic.

KD is nearly 7 foot tall and built like a stick. Literally every defensive player in the NFL could stick a hand in his chest and stop him getting off the line of scrimmage, and that’s before thinking about how injured he’d get after a couple of hits.

You compare LeBron with Calvin Johnson, but Calvin was stronger than LeBron and mikes faster (a 4.4 runner vs LeBron running what, a 4.8?)

Football players are, on average, faster, stronger, better jumpers and more explosive than basketball players. There are dudes in the NFL who are almost Olympic level in track and field, I can’t think of 3 NBA players who were even track and field stars in high school.

Making the NBA is way, way, way harder than making the NFL because you have to be able to master a tough skill (shooting a basketball), but as far as pure athleticism goes the NFL clears.

Zion is considered one of the freakiest athletes in NBA history, yet almost every NFL team has a defensive end who’s built like him while carrying more muscle on their frame and can run faster.

It's entirely different. Highest paid players in the NFL are quarterbacks and none of them are even making a G league team.

I think the easiest way to look at is if a guy is good enough to play both he's choosing the NBA everytime.

The best athletes in sports or NFL DE and OLB. The size, strength, and speed combination is unmatched.

Your typical NBA guard if they have the aggression would be better than the skill positions except QB, because throwing is a unique skill. Usually QBs are also baseball players.

It all matters on the frame of reference.

I think it’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, kind of. Also, I just had the thought of like, the combined value of personnel requirement vs phenotype/archetype. It’s more common for a dude to be built like a bear versus a giraffe.

But then it could be, in my mind at least, that basketball is a sport that seems to have more weirdos per capita than football. So maybe add natural demeanor/inclination to that combination factor.

Both are super blue collar sports at their bones, but it’s like art kids vs woodshop kids. Obviously there are lots of exceptions and outliers. And, obviously I am mildly stoned and talking out of my butt.

NFL players by far. Only the strongest, fastest NBA players like Lebron and Ant could maybe play in the NFL.

It terms of pure athletes, NFL players are the best in the world end of story. I think NBA players have a lot more finesse and maybe skill but theres no doubt NFL guys are the best athletes

I would say NFL players are generally more complete athletes.

Everybody here talking about how guards in the NBA csnt play football. Let's see these NFL guys dribble let alone shoot the basketball.

They're just different specializations, even kickers live in a different world.

Bro kd would get injured on his first nfl hit. A tackle to his legs would be devastating.

Football is much more physical and requires muscle mass. People like kd, Tyler Herro, Jordan poole, etc. would get obliterated.

NFL = Better body/muscle mass, less skill

NBA = More spread out athleticism and skill

Depends on what area of athleticism you are looking at. The best NFL players have the athleticism to be in the NBA if only they had the skills. Football is a lower skill level sport so you can def see some NBA players take on the NFL but only in certain positions, other places they would get eaten up.

NBA - less players on team (more exclusive) but most of all they play both ways

NFL players are tougher, but NBA players require more athleticism overall.

You don't need excellent hand eye coordination as an offensive lineman but you still do to be the 15th man on the bench.

Wemby would feast

NBA players are tall, fast, and leap as high as a lot of NFL players.

No. The highest standing vert at the combine for a nba player is 38. For reference there were 15 nfl players in the year 2021 alone that was 40 inch or over. Every year there's a lot of 40 inch standing vert in the nfl. When you're tall the anatomy of the human body makes it hard to run fast. Before you say bolt. Bolt is a unicorn, most top olympic track runners are 5'9 to 5'10. In terms of pure track stuff nfl players (positions like value speed like DBs) would run around nba players.

Footballers (soccer players for Americans) are better athletes than both