NBA - Soccer Player Comparisons

[clyde21]

LeBron James -- Cristiano Ronaldo

Kawhi Leonard -- Thomas Muller

Stephen Curry -- Lionel Messi

Giannis Antetokounmpo -- Paul Pogba

Russell Westbrook -- Gareth Bale

Chris Paul -- Andres Iniesta

DeMarcus Cousins -- Zlatan Ibrahimovic


Change these if you disagree and/or add others that might be more apt.

[azcatz11]

I really like you as a poster but honestly this makes no sense lol

[clyde21]

I really like you as a poster but honestly this makes no sense lol

Which ones?

LeBron James - Cristiano Ronaldo are similar in that they're both physical freaks who can dominate in a lot of different ways - especially as scorers and playmakers for other people.

Any ones in particular you disagree with?

This guy does some decent comparisons here: http://www.ohmygoal.co/lol/10-soccer-players-with-nba-counterparts.html

[mihail_petkov]

Lol, not even close LeBron == Ronaldo. LeBron is top 3 GOAT, super efficient, amazing playmaker. Ronaldo is inefficient volume scorer who doesn't have the impact of Messi.

The best comparison for Messi is LeBron + Curry strengths in Curry's body. Messi is super efficient, amazing playmaker and passer, the GOAT offensive player.
Ronaldo == Kobe - not so efficient as GOATs, overachieved players with huge ego, reaching their legendary status by amazing work ethic.

[AdagioPace]

Thomas Müller is more like an underrated versatile all-star.
(like a Marc Gasol or a Klay Thompson that fits in any situation but does not always perform at his best. Last year he was benched by Carlo for quite a few games given that Ancelotti prefers athletic wings and a conventional striker and Muller for him is like "neither fish,nor fowl" kind of player.)

I like the comparison Müller-Kawhi though because Thomas is called a "Raumdeuter" ("space interpreter"). So he's one of the best off-ball players in soccer exactly like Leonard, and also because Muller,like Kawhi, usualy plays in a very "economical" way, not explosive,nor extremely athletic but effective and efficient.

If you apply the same criterium you used for Gannis-Pogba
A soccer mate for KAwhi would be a dominant two-way midfielder like Yaya Tourè (at his best) or mid 00s Patrick Vieira


Cousins-Zlatan is a match made in heaven

[Joey Wheeler]

Messi = Jordan #GOAT

[clyde21]

Messi = Jordan #GOAT

Mike is the GOAT closer/winner in the NBA. That's not Messi at all.

[clyde21]

Lol, not even close LeBron == Ronaldo. LeBron is top 3 GOAT, super efficient, amazing playmaker. Ronaldo is inefficient volume scorer who doesn't have the impact of the Messi.

The best comparison is that Messi is LeBron + Curry strengths in Curry's body. Messi is super efficient, amazing playmaker and passer, the GOAT offensive player.
Ronaldo == Kobe - not so efficient as GOATs, overachieved players with huge ego, reaching their legendary status by amazing work ethic.

Cristiano has reached legendary status because of his all-time level tools, and he's just as good of a playmaker as scorer (LeBron). It's an apt comparison.

[Joao Saraiva]

Lol, not even close LeBron == Ronaldo. LeBron is top 3 GOAT, super efficient, amazing playmaker. Ronaldo is inefficient volume scorer who doesn't have the impact of the Messi.

The best comparison is that Messi is LeBron + Curry strengths in Curry's body. Messi is super efficient, amazing playmaker and passer, the GOAT offensive player.
Ronaldo == Kobe - not so efficient as GOATs, overachieved players with huge ego, reaching their legendary status by amazing work ethic.

Ronaldo is so inefficient that he holds the record for most 50+ goals seasons in the history of soccer.

He has the record for most goals in a champions league edition, best scorer ever in the champions league, best scorer from the quarter finals on (made it last year)...

I mean, what more do you want from him?

He's a machine. Has the stats, the accodales and the team success. You might not like him, but at this point it's really hard to argue against Ronaldo as a GOAT candidate (Messi is obviously another GOAT candidate).

[Joao Saraiva]

I'll give it a try.

Stockton = Pirlo - tremendous playmakers with big big longevity.

[Bergmaniac]

Messi = Jordan #GOAT

Mike is the GOAT closer/winner in the NBA. That's not Messi at all.

Messi at club level definitely has a case for that.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

LeBron = Luis Nazario de Lima

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[CumberlandPosey]

rick mahorn -- thorsten legat

mookie blaylock -- thomas hässler

marc gasol -- chilavert

spud webb -- jorge campos

michael cage -- robert huth

ac green -- rene higuita

dirk nowitzki -- socrates

westbrook -- real ronaldo

david thompson -- gerd müller

[mihail_petkov]

Lol, not even close LeBron == Ronaldo. LeBron is top 3 GOAT, super efficient, amazing playmaker. Ronaldo is inefficient volume scorer who doesn't have the impact of the Messi.

The best comparison is that Messi is LeBron + Curry strengths in Curry's body. Messi is super efficient, amazing playmaker and passer, the GOAT offensive player.
Ronaldo == Kobe - not so efficient as GOATs, overachieved players with huge ego, reaching their legendary status by amazing work ethic.

Ronaldo is so inefficient that he holds the record for most 50+ goals seasons in the history of soccer.

He has the record for most goals in a champions league edition, best scorer ever in the champions league, best scorer from the quarter finals on (made it last year)...

I mean, what more do you want from him?

He's a machine. Has the stats, the accodales and the team success. You might not like him, but at this point it's really hard to argue against Ronaldo as a GOAT candidate (Messi is obviously another GOAT candidate).

Allen Iversion scored ~32 points per game twice, most in the league in the last 25 years after Kobe's 06 and 07 seasons. Didn't know he was the best player in the league and efficient scorer.

Messi has 0.4-0.5 goals per shot. Ronaldo has 0.1-0.2. He stops almost every Real Madrid attack with shoots. This is not efficient in a team sport.

[The-Power]

Messi = Jordan #GOAT

Mike is the GOAT closer/winner in the NBA. That's not Messi at all.

There is nothing remotely similar in soccer to a ‘closer‘ in basketball. Not how the game works. But Messi has put up numerous incredible performances and scored many goals in crucial games. He does not perform any worse in big games and big games in general would be the closest equivalent to a clutch performer.

Cristiano has reached legendary status because of his all-time level tools, and he's just as good of a playmaker as scorer (LeBron). It's an apt comparison.

In what world is that? Certainly not in the world I live in.

edit: Oh, and Paul reminds me more of Xavi than Iniesta with the way they control the pace of the game, the amount of touches they have and the superb vision and passing ability they possess (not that Iniesta doesn't have some of those traits but he's not Xavi in this regard and plays a bit differently with some different strengths).

---

My one and only comparison: 2015-17 Curry = 2018-20 Coutinho. Book it.

edit2: to elaborate on it a bit:
- both players have some similar physical traits (both are small for their sport but have a astoundingly strong base, they do not rely on explosive speed but quick movements)
- both dominate with skill first and foremost (amazing feel for the ball, great dribblers, very creative, good vision, flashy passers)
- both create for themselves and others at a high level (and both can do – and in fact mostly do – create from outside; obviously Curry is more focused on scoring himself but that's in the nature of the games and Coutinho certainly does like to shoot from distance a lot)
- both are humble off the court but extremely confident on it (and neither does complain in the public)
- both are crowd-pleasers to some extent
- both are committed to playing good defense but are limited in certain situations (but overall both are not negative defenders)
- both have an injury-history (though Coutinho's is not as worriesome as Curry's was)

As for the timeline: I can easily see Coutinho reaching top 5 status as soon as next year. Similar to what the Warriors did with Curry, Coutinho is presumably going to play in a role even better suited for him next season (more centrally) and he's going to have the keys in his hands even more. He has the right offensive players around him to help him maximize his impact and he's due for his absolute breakout – after we already know that he's an incredible player (kind of like Curry in 2014). Liverpool might even be among the title contenders in the PL next year.

[Jaivl]

Luka Modric - Chris Paul

[SlowPaced]

The best example of this, for me, is Russell Westbrook - Alexis Sánchez.

and he's just as good of a playmaker as scorer

Surely you must be talking about a different Cristiano Ronaldo.

[guille_4]

Lol, not even close LeBron == Ronaldo. LeBron is top 3 GOAT, super efficient, amazing playmaker. Ronaldo is inefficient volume scorer who doesn't have the impact of the Messi.

The best comparison is that Messi is LeBron + Curry strengths in Curry's body. Messi is super efficient, amazing playmaker and passer, the GOAT offensive player.
Ronaldo == Kobe - not so efficient as GOATs, overachieved players with huge ego, reaching their legendary status by amazing work ethic.

Ronaldo is so inefficient that he holds the record for most 50+ goals seasons in the history of soccer.

He has the record for most goals in a champions league edition, best scorer ever in the champions league, best scorer from the quarter finals on (made it last year)...

I mean, what more do you want from him?

He's a machine. Has the stats, the accodales and the team success. You might not like him, but at this point it's really hard to argue against Ronaldo as a GOAT candidate (Messi is obviously another GOAT candidate).

Allen Iversion scored ~32 points per game twice, most in the league in the last 25 years after Kobe's 06 and 07 seasons. Didn't know he was the best player in the league and efficient scorer.

Messi has 0.4-0.5 goals per shot. Ronaldo has 0.1-0.2. He stops almost every Real Madrid attack with shoots. This is not efficient in a team sport.

Lol, this isn't basketball. I'm not a fan of Ronaldo, but this comment is totally out of touch.

As much as I dislike him, there's no doubt he's a top5 player ever and he's an integral part to Real Madrid's success in the past few seasons. Real Madrid fairs pretty poorly when he's out and IMO he's one of Real's 2 most important players, the other being Luka Modric.

[guille_4]

The best example of this, for me, is Russell Westbrook - Alexis Sánchez.

and he's just as good of a playmaker as scorer

Surely you must be talking about a different Cristiano Ronaldo.

Agreed. He's a terrible playmaker. It still amazes me how many easy 3-5 meter passes he misses and he hasn't been capable of beating his man consistently in 1 v 1 for the past 4 seasons. He creates little to nothing for others. He manages to pull in a good amount of assists each season simply because he attracts a lot of attention and sometimes has easy passes.

IMO he's more Kobe than Lebron, but I also like Lebron's comparison because the team kinda plays for him. When he's out, the team suffers big time.

[mihail_petkov]

Ronaldo is so inefficient that he holds the record for most 50+ goals seasons in the history of soccer.

He has the record for most goals in a champions league edition, best scorer ever in the champions league, best scorer from the quarter finals on (made it last year)...

I mean, what more do you want from him?

He's a machine. Has the stats, the accodales and the team success. You might not like him, but at this point it's really hard to argue against Ronaldo as a GOAT candidate (Messi is obviously another GOAT candidate).

Allen Iversion scored ~32 points per game twice, most in the league in the last 25 years after Kobe's 06 and 07 seasons. Didn't know he was the best player in the league and efficient scorer.

Messi has 0.4-0.5 goals per shot. Ronaldo has 0.1-0.2. He stops almost every Real Madrid attack with shoots. This is not efficient in a team sport.

Lol, this isn't basketball. I'm not a fan of Ronaldo, but this comment is totally out of touch.

As much as I dislike him, there's no doubt he's a top5 player ever and he's an integral part to Real Madrid's success in the past few seasons. Real Madrid fairs pretty poorly when he's out and IMO he's one of Real's 2 most important players, the other being Luka Modric.

I am not saying he isn't top 5/10 all time, but he is not even close to LeBron as impact, performance or legendary status. He is more similar to Kobe than to LeBron.

Also Ronaldo is a bit overrated too. Last year he was awful during Euro 2016. Portugal won the championship even with his awful performance except 2 of the 7 games. They won the Final without him. This year Real Madrid wouldn't even play in the later stages of CL if it wasn't the referees versus Bayern M. On Bernabeu Ronaldo scored two goals when he was in offside, Casemiro didn't receive red card and Vidal didn't even foul the opponent when received red card. So Ronaldo is great but let's not overreact that he is similar to LeBron.

P.P. Interesting stat before Euro 2016. Ronaldo had ~160 shoots in his career in Euro Championships, 45 of them from free kicks. Second place all time is David Trezeguet with 40 shots total