Better Athletes NFL or NBA players?

[CBB_Fan]

Football is going to get the majority of the votes, because football is so much about explosive athleticism. That sort of stuff is what impresses people the most, and is what they generally mean when they refer to "athleticism."

But there is a reason NBA athletes are far more rare than NFL athletes (~400ish to roughly ~1500ish). It requires a much more complete athlete than football does, because basketball is much more like the decathlon than the 100m dash.

To be an elite player in the NBA, you need a combination of explosive straightline power, lateral quickness, verticality, AND a huge amount of body control, skill with the ball, endurance, and of course height/weight/length. Football players are far more specialized, so they will look like better athletes when you compare them at what they train for.

Endurance is one of the biggest differences. While basketball players don't have to move as much as soccer players do, the difference between playing full-court basketball and playing football is night and day. Football is a hundred 5 to 10 yard sprints, while basketball requires players to stay completely active for a majority of the game. Even the best players in football play on only half the snaps (offense/defense), while basketball players need to play full throttle at all times.

Honestly, I think more NBA players could play in the NFL than vice versa. It is hard for me to imagine Darrelle Revis or Tom Brady trying to bring the ball up the court, or even Calvin Johnson trying to playing SF/PF. Whereas I could easily see a lot of NBA players that could train and build up the strength to play in the NFL (Lebron for instance).

The NFL has more specialized athletes. Without even going into 3/4 and 4/3 players or special teams, you have over a dozen specialist positions, each of which is designed to maximize strength and quickness for a certain height/weight. They SHOULD have more burst speed and strength compared to basketball players of similar height. But basketball players require every player to play a more general role, play with greater endurance, and demands a much higher minimum level of body control and "skill."

Combine all those things with height/length requirements, and the perfect basketball player is far more rare than the perfect position player in football. The checklist is longer, so the game is built more around versatility and general athleticism than optimizing a few a traits.

TL;DR: Football players are sprinters and high jumpers. Basketball players are decathletes. Guess which is called "The World's Greatest Athlete."

[Respect My Mind]

The difference is Gerald Green is an elite athlete compared to the average NBA SG/SF. Jerome Simpson isn't an elite athlete compared to the average NFL WR. If Jerome Simpson was at this year's NFL combine, his 37.5" vertical would have him tied for 23rd place. Gerald Green's own 39" vertical would leave him tied for 13th place at the 2013 NFL combine.

Oh, and some of the guys at the combine who jump higher than Green? They also run 40 yards in the 4.4-4.5s range, and do 15+ reps of a 225-lbs bench press. At the NBA Combine, Green could only manage 7 reps of a 185-lbs bench press, and it took him 3.2s to run 23.5 yards (3/4 court sprint = 70.5 feet = 23.5 yds).

Basically you had to put up one of the NBA's best athletes at his position to stack up with an NFL player who isn't even close to being among the best athletes at his position. Green's athleticism doesn't even stack up to the most athletic college players, let alone the pros.

And the difference is that NFL guys train for months on end for the draft combine. They hire trainers to teach them how to do well of the specific drills and practice them over and over and over and over. NBA players wake up out of bed one day and go do the sprints and jump test. You just can take a comparison of the results at face value.

[sisibilio]

Who is a better athlete? Usain Bolt or Jan Zelezny?

[CB-Blazer]

TL;DR: Football players are sprinters and high jumpers. Basketball players are decathletes. Guess which is called "The World's Greatest Athlete."

While I agree with the premise of the rest of your post (I played both sports, basketball was much more tiring, however I didn't play on the online or dline which is probably the positions that require the most endurance because you are going fullspeed and battling every play you are on the field).

However basketball players are hardly decathletes.

100m dash
Long Jump
Shot Put
High Jump
400m dash
110m hurdles
Discus
Pole Vault
Javelin
1500m run

Majority of those events are based off of speed and strength, which if you concede that NFL Players are strong and faster (which you did), logically it would lead to the conclusion that NFL players would generally be better overall decathletes.

I would argue that the NBA players would make better cross-country runners (and probably even the 800m+ events in track) however I don't think they would hold up to the NFL players in a decathlon.

[NYK_89]

Again, the argument is so subjective (different tests, different skills etc), that I think the only way to really determine which sport has the better athletes is to look at the money. NBA players are just paid better, period.
Calvin Johnson, who could go down as one the best WRs of all time, in the highest paid era of NFL players, so far, just got his 8 year $150 million contract. That's only $19 mil/season, and he's one of the highest paid players ever. Borderline All-Stars like Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer can get 6 year, $120 million dollar contracts. If you (athletes) have a choice between the two sports, you go with the NBA.

With that in mind, I think it's safe to assume that the NBA and not the NFL, has its choice of the top Athletes.

This thread has had some really bad arguments in it, but this one right here just blows all the other ones away. We determine how good of an athlete you are based on how much you are paid? Really?! Kevin Love will make more money next year than Adrian Peterson. Are you really ready to call Love a better athlete than Peterson?

LMAO, that would make Prince Fielder a better athlete than Lebron.

And some Formula One driver would be a better athlete than anyone in the NFL or NBA, even though he doesn't sprint a single meter or jump a single inch in his sport.

Well for one a player like Calvin Johnson is just as good as Lebron physically the guy is 6'5-6'6 4.3 40 and a 40+inch vert. Basketball has room for players with little athleticism due to other things like shooting passing IQ etc. A bad 40 time or bad vertical jump at the NBA combine is not going to kill some consensus pick, in football a bad combine in Football can drop you rounds.

[lakerz12]

Overall I would say NFL because of all sports it requires the most athleticism versus learned skill.


There are some guys in the NBA who could definitely play in the NFL (mostly as wide receivers and do well).

This is a bit off the original question, but the large majority of the NFL could never play in the NBA because each requires a different set of physicality, talent, and athleticism AND

UNLESS they dedicated themselves to basketball from an early age, BECAUSE the NBA requires much more than just athleticism -- while conversely I think football requires the least amount of learned skill of any major sport.

[NYK_89]

Just the fact that people are listing hyper athletic NBA players and saying they could easily play in the NFL should tell you something hahahahaha. YEAH NO **** THATS WHY THE NFL HAS MORE ATHLETIC PLAYERS. Lets put it this way, if you listed the 5 strongest, fastest, and most agile players in each sport im pretty sure the NFL would win in every catagory with 5 players.

[NYK_89]

Overall I would say NFL but there are some guys in the NBA who could definitely play in the NFL (mostly as wide receivers and do well) and the large majority of the NFL could never play in the NBA because each requires a different set of physicality, talent, and athleticism.

The main qualifier would be Height, average NBA height is a detriment in Football. NBA greats are usually physical freaks in the aspect of coordination relative to height, freak athleticism is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

[NYK_89]

Jump, Catch, Windmill, Throw-down. NFL players couldn't even do this on a 9 foot rim.

1- of course the could rofl.

2- That is height based.

NBA players are athletic for their height, NFL players are the most athletic people in the NBA. Depending on the position 90% of your success is based on cutting, quickness/speed, and strength. Just because there are like 15 athletic "freaks" in the NBA does not change the fact that there are players like Novak Bonner Mozgov etc who look like nerdy white guys. Even NFL linemen weight 300+ pounds and are fast as lightining. A defensive linemen ran a 40 time similar to Lebron this week, THE SECOND FATTEST GUYS ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD RAN AS FAST AS LEBRON WHO LOOKS LIKE HE WAS SHOT OUT OF A CANNON COMPARED TO OTHER NBA PLAYERS.

[lakerz12]

Overall I would say NFL but there are some guys in the NBA who could definitely play in the NFL (mostly as wide receivers and do well) and the large majority of the NFL could never play in the NBA because each requires a different set of physicality, talent, and athleticism.

The main qualifier would be Height, average NBA height is a detriment in Football. NBA greats are usually physical freaks in the aspect of coordination relative to height, freak athleticism is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

I wouldn't say NBA players are generally suitable for any position other than wide receiver--

Where, yes, height would be a big factor because of overall length, coordination and leaping ability NOT TO MENTION great hands.

Freak athleticism I agree is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

To my last semi off-topic point about learned skill, NBA players could pick up football a lot faster than vice verse because it doesn't require nearly as much learned skill.

[NYK_89]

Overall I would say NFL but there are some guys in the NBA who could definitely play in the NFL (mostly as wide receivers and do well) and the large majority of the NFL could never play in the NBA because each requires a different set of physicality, talent, and athleticism.

The main qualifier would be Height, average NBA height is a detriment in Football. NBA greats are usually physical freaks in the aspect of coordination relative to height, freak athleticism is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

I wouldn't say NBA players are generally suitable for any position other than wide receiver--

Where, yes, height would be a big factor because of overall length, coordination and leaping ability NOT TO MENTION great hands.

Freak athleticism I agree is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

To my last semi off-topic point about learned skill, NBA players could pick up football a lot faster than vice verse because it doesn't require nearly as much learned skill.

Yeah because outside of the small things that you have to learn the NFL is mostly based on athleticism, when looking at positions like CB/WR the main thing is either keeping with the other guys speed or being faster then the other guy. Also we need to understand that most of these wide recievers would be just another guy in the NFL. Westbrook and Rose come to mind as pretty good CB/WR types, they wouldn't exactly be running by everyone.

[BubbaTee]

The difference is Gerald Green is an elite athlete compared to the average NBA SG/SF. Jerome Simpson isn't an elite athlete compared to the average NFL WR. If Jerome Simpson was at this year's NFL combine, his 37.5" vertical would have him tied for 23rd place. Gerald Green's own 39" vertical would leave him tied for 13th place at the 2013 NFL combine.

Oh, and some of the guys at the combine who jump higher than Green? They also run 40 yards in the 4.4-4.5s range, and do 15+ reps of a 225-lbs bench press. At the NBA Combine, Green could only manage 7 reps of a 185-lbs bench press, and it took him 3.2s to run 23.5 yards (3/4 court sprint = 70.5 feet = 23.5 yds).

Basically you had to put up one of the NBA's best athletes at his position to stack up with an NFL player who isn't even close to being among the best athletes at his position. Green's athleticism doesn't even stack up to the most athletic college players, let alone the pros.

And the difference is that NFL guys train for months on end for the draft combine. They hire trainers to teach them how to do well of the specific drills and practice them over and over and over and over. NBA players wake up out of bed one day and go do the sprints and jump test. You just can take a comparison of the results at face value.

So because NFL players train to improve their athleticism, that should somehow count against them? If anything, it speaks to the much higher athletic standards the NFL has.

Seriously, think of the situation you're describing here:
- the physical standards of the NFL are so high that prospects have to hire trainers and spend months improving their physical attributes just to get drafted.
- Meanwhile, the NBA's physical standards are so low that a prospect can just roll out of bed, wipe the pizza crumbs off his shirt, put up poor results at the combine, and not have their draft stock harmed at all.

If getting into Harvard required a student to study 4 hours a night improving your academics, while getting into a state university meant the student didn't have to study at all, most would take that as a sign of Harvard having higher academic standards than the state university.

[PetroNet]

Big Baby -played FB, TE and DL in HS

'

"he played football in high school" is such a terrible argument." hell i played football in high school

[lakerz12]

The main qualifier would be Height, average NBA height is a detriment in Football. NBA greats are usually physical freaks in the aspect of coordination relative to height, freak athleticism is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

I wouldn't say NBA players are generally suitable for any position other than wide receiver--

Where, yes, height would be a big factor because of overall length, coordination and leaping ability NOT TO MENTION great hands.

Freak athleticism I agree is basically a qualifier for the NFL.

To my last semi off-topic point about learned skill, NBA players could pick up football a lot faster than vice verse because it doesn't require nearly as much learned skill.[/quote]
Yeah because outside of the small things that you have to learn the NFL is mostly based on athleticism, when looking at positions like CB/WR the main thing is either keeping with the other guys speed or being faster then the other guy. Also we need to understand that most of these wide recievers would be just another guy in the NFL. Westbrook and Rose come to mind as pretty good CB/WR types, they wouldn't exactly be running by everyone.[/quote]

I agree but what about every very athletic guy in the NBA over 6'5" and up to 6"10 (of which there are many) playing TE or WR and overwhelming people with their length and reaching ability?

I mean didn't Randy Moss at 6'4" overwhelm a lot of DB's with his length?

Imagine a guy like Lebron or Paul George going up for a jump ball against an average NFL DB .. do you think that DB has a chance?

[BubbaTee]

To my last semi off-topic point about learned skill, NBA players could pick up football a lot faster than vice verse because it doesn't require nearly as much learned skill.

It varies by position, because football is so specialized compared to basketball.

A quarterback has to learn much more than any basketball player. He's basically expected to have a bird's-eye view of the field, account for and track the movements of all 11 defenders, recognize the defense being played before the play even starts, manipulate the movements of the defense throughout the play, then make the correct read of the defense, and then throw it to a guy running very fast and hit him perfectly in stride. Oh, and if he doesn't make the right decision within 3 seconds, some very strong, very angry, 300-lbs guy is going to plant him into the ground.

Whereas a 1-gap nose tackle basically has to learn "Hey, see this hole between the Center and Guard? Make sure no running back gets through that hole, tackle anyone who tries to. After you make sure of that, go chase the quarterback if he still has the ball."

[BubbaTee]

I mean didn't Randy Moss at 6'4" overwhelm a lot of DB's with his length?

Imagine a guy like Lebron or Paul George going up for a jump ball against an average NFL DB .. do you think that DB has a chance?

Now imagine a 230-lbs guy running full speed and launching himself like a human missile into Lebron's head, neck, or torso in an attempt to dislodge that ball. Do you think Lebron has a chance of completing the catch?

Look at this.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBkxTd83RAs[/youtube]

Westbrook doesn't even try to tackle Lebron, he just rakes Lebron around the shoulder/neck area, and it still sends Lebron sprawling. Westbrook gets a flagrant foul. In the NFL that's a clean play - if anything, by NFL standards it's towards the soft side of the spectrum by Westbrook because he didn't plant Lebron in the ground or at least undercut his legs and cause him to fall on his head/neck. Whatever it takes to break up the pass, as long as it's timed right and not explicitly banned in the rule book.

If you want an NBA player who plays with an NFL mentality, look at Matt Barnes. By NBA standards, Matt Barnes is a dirty player.

[hype_2004]

I mean didn't Randy Moss at 6'4" overwhelm a lot of DB's with his length?

Imagine a guy like Lebron or Paul George going up for a jump ball against an average NFL DB .. do you think that DB has a chance?

Now imagine a 230-lbs guy running full speed and launching himself like a human missile into Lebron's head, neck, or torso in an attempt to dislodge that ball. Do you think Lebron has a chance of completing the catch?

Look at this.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBkxTd83RAs[/youtube]

Westbrook doesn't even try to tackle Lebron, he just rakes Lebron around the shoulder/neck area, and it still sends Lebron sprawling. Westbrook gets a flagrant foul. In the NFL that's a clean play - if anything, by NFL standards it's towards the soft side of the spectrum by Westbrook because he didn't plant Lebron in the ground or at least undercut his legs and cause him to fall on his head/neck. Whatever it takes to break up the pass, as long as it's timed right and not explicitly banned in the rule book.

If you want an NBA player who plays with an NFL mentality, look at Matt Barnes. By NBA standards, Matt Barnes is a dirty player.

Sorry bro but most LB these days weigh 250-265 lbs and their half a foot shorter than lebron, lower center of gravity = more power per square inch delivered = a toasted Lebron James, TE's in the NFL are constantly getting battered by hits over the middle.

[TheToothFairy]

Big Baby -played FB, TE and DL in HS

'

"he played football in high school" is such a terrible argument." hell i played football in high school

Are you 6'8 300lbs fast, strong , quick , athletic and agile?

Get paid millions of dollars to play a sport?

Good hands?

[Respect My Mind]

The difference is Gerald Green is an elite athlete compared to the average NBA SG/SF. Jerome Simpson isn't an elite athlete compared to the average NFL WR. If Jerome Simpson was at this year's NFL combine, his 37.5" vertical would have him tied for 23rd place. Gerald Green's own 39" vertical would leave him tied for 13th place at the 2013 NFL combine.

Oh, and some of the guys at the combine who jump higher than Green? They also run 40 yards in the 4.4-4.5s range, and do 15+ reps of a 225-lbs bench press. At the NBA Combine, Green could only manage 7 reps of a 185-lbs bench press, and it took him 3.2s to run 23.5 yards (3/4 court sprint = 70.5 feet = 23.5 yds).

Basically you had to put up one of the NBA's best athletes at his position to stack up with an NFL player who isn't even close to being among the best athletes at his position. Green's athleticism doesn't even stack up to the most athletic college players, let alone the pros.

And the difference is that NFL guys train for months on end for the draft combine. They hire trainers to teach them how to do well of the specific drills and practice them over and over and over and over. NBA players wake up out of bed one day and go do the sprints and jump test. You just can take a comparison of the results at face value.

So because NFL players train to improve their athleticism, that should somehow count against them? If anything, it speaks to the much higher athletic standards the NFL has.

Seriously, think of the situation you're describing here:
- the physical standards of the NFL are so high that prospects have to hire trainers and spend months improving their physical attributes just to get drafted.
- Meanwhile, the NBA's physical standards are so low that a prospect can just roll out of bed, wipe the pizza crumbs off his shirt, put up poor results at the combine, and not have their draft stock harmed at all.

If getting into Harvard required a student to study 4 hours a night improving your academics, while getting into a state university meant the student didn't have to study at all, most would take that as a sign of Harvard having higher academic standards than the state university.

You do realized you completely killed you're argument? Studying longer for a test means you will do better on a TEST. If I do practice addition and subtraction problems until I'm blue in the face and then ace a test with those same problems that I studied, it does NOT make me smarter than the next guy who never even dare open the textbook but still got a "B+"on the same test.

NFL guys practice for months and months and months on the combine drills. NBA guys lollygag and do stupid John Wall dances all day and still put up good measurables.

[thelastpope]

Even though NBA playe are great athletes

NFL players are better

BO Jackson greatest athlete EVER

4.1 speed / 20/225 bench
6'0 at 230