Jalen Brunson appeared on ESPN’s Monday Night Football coverage for the NFL alongside former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. Kelce asked Brunson what was more challenging in his opinion while comparing an NFL player joining the NBA or an NBA player joining the NFL.
“I would say it’s easier for an NBA guy to play in the NFL. I’m not saying it’s easy, it’s easier. If you were guarding the pick-and-roll… I played (football) for two years when I was a kid and I realized this was not for me.”
"Like if you're guarding the pick and roll … nah." 🤣
Jason Kelce asked @jalenbrunson1 if it's harder for an NFL player to play in the NBA or vice versa 👀 pic.twitter.com/SfziZMqspO
— ESPN (@espn) September 17, 2024
Brunson has parroted a statement we have seen a lot of NBA players make in recent seasons. It seems NBA players widely believe they could be in the NFL if they chose that as their primary sport given the wicked athleticism of many top NBA players. While Brunson himself might not be a perfect fit to be a footballer, players like LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, and Anthony Edwards would look like they belong on a football field.
We have never seen a multi-sport professional athlete between the NBA and NFL, because both sports would be extremely challenging to play at the highest level. Nonetheless, Edwards made it clear last season that he hopes to become the first two-sport athlete between the NBA and NFL.
“I think I might be the first one. I will try. First, I gotta handle my business in the NBA. As a team, the Minnesota organization, we want to win a championship. After that, we’ll figure it out.”
Realistically, no NBA player could be competitive in the NFL right now after spending decades training for basketball. It’s a different ballgame if we consider football at the high school or college level, which many NBA players have dabbled in as multi-sport athletes.
DeMar DeRozan And Austin Rivers Agree WIth Jalen Brunson
What Brunson said is not a hot take among NBA circles, with multiple players recently making similar statements that dismiss the caliber of NFL players in the NBA while claiming over 20 NBA players could be productive members of NFL rosters.
Rivers cited the NBA’s cultural appeal as one of the main reasons players who are good at basketball pursue that sport instead of also trying to make it to the NFL.
“I can take 30 players right now in the NBA and throw them in the NFL. You cannot take 30 NFL players and put them in the NBA. There’s a reason why hip-hop artists, when they rap, they compare themselves to ballers. They’re not talking about footballers. They’re talking about basketball players.”
DeMat DeRozan also recently discussed how a conversation with Alex Caruso led to him realizing that around 30 NBA players could be in the NFL if they focused on it.
“We got 30 players in the league. I said, man, I can name about 10 right now that could play in the NFL… Over the next couple of days, I started seeing everybody else you know comment and everything. I think basketball players can almost do anything if you give us two to three months to prepare for it… I think we have about 20 people in our league that can play in the NFL.”
This debate will rage on, but I am inclined to agree with the NBA stars given the biggest barrier to entry to the NBA is on-ball skill and shooting ability, traits which take longer to perfect than an NBA player running NFL routes. But the danger of taking massive physical hits doesn’t exist in the NBA, so that adjustment alone could make it harder for the NBA stars.
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