LeBron James stands 6 foot 8 inches and weighs more than Karl Malone did during his playing days. The King is an all-time physical specimen in sports, but could he have been the best football player to ever lace a pair of cleats?
Doc Rivers certainly thinks so, and said as much rather emphatically while on his son’s podcast “Go Off with Austin Rivers”. “Could you imagine as a high school kid, as a senior, LeBron James with a helmet on? That’s dangerous. I would’ve given him the ball,” Rivers said. Doc and Austin both agree LeBron is the best athlete in modern-day sports but the Clippers coach took it a step further and claims LeBron would have been one of the best players in NFL history.
Let’s dissect this for a moment. Jerry Rice ran a 4.71 40-time, defensive tackle John Randle stood at a stout 6’1″ and 290 lbs, an undersized stature in comparison to his contemporaries at the position. Size, speed and physical prowess aren’t the main factors in determining the caliber of football players as evidenced by the last two decades of Raiders’ drafts.
Basically it is HIGHLY unlikely that LeBron would have been the GOAT in the NFL.
Flip the page for Doc’s full thoughts. Twitter didn’t take too kindly to what he had to say.