Issue #002: Who are the NBA equivalents of Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes?
Football, but make it basketball
Whenever LeBron James makes an NBA Finals, which is just about every year since 2011*, Shea Serrano shares this tweet:
[*The only year he didn’t make it since 2011 was in 2019, when he dealt with injuries and the Lakers missed the playoffs.]
This same flow chart could be applied to football, just swap “LeBron” with “Tom Brady” and “NBA Finals” with “Super Bowl.” Tom Brady’s first year starting for the Patriots was in 2001. Here’s his run of Super Bowls since then.
2001: Super Bowl
2003: Super Bowl
2004: Super Bowl
2007: Super Bowl
2011: Super Bowl
2014: Super Bowl
2016: Super Bowl
2017: Super Bowl
2018: Super Bowl
2020: Super Bowl
He hasn’t gone more than 4 years without playing in a Super Bowl, which is absolutely insane, especially in football. This past weekend, we saw Tom Brady and the Bucs and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs win to reach the Super Bowl. For Tom Brady, it’s his 10th time playing in the Super Bowl and for Mahomes, he’s playing in his second straight. Mina Kimes offered up this perfect picture to represent what we will be watching in two weeks.
Brady is the G.O.A.T. Mahomes wants to become the G.O.A.T. A common thing in sports is to compare athletes across different sports. Let’s take a look at the two quarterbacks and see who their best comparison is from the NBA.
Tom Brady
Most people compare Brady to MJ. Joe Montana seems to fit the MJ comparison better though. They both went undefeated when making it to the championship. They both went on to play for random teams following their primary careers. Prior to Brady, Montana was often referred to as the greatest QB. MJ is frequently at the top spot in people’s NBA player rankings.
Brady’s career more closely mirrors LeBron’s. They’ve both been to 10 championships. They’ve both lost multiple titles, Brady three times and LeBron six times. They’ve both had long careers, longer than most athletes in their respective sports. Their careers even started around the same time, Brady in 2001 and LeBron in 2003. They’ve both brought two or more teams to the championship game. They’ve both thrown themselves into the G.O.A.T. conversation.
They even garner similar sports hate from fans. Most people don’t have any issues with MJ and Montana. When it comes to Brady and LeBron, people have very strong opinions that can either be strong affection for them or extreme hatred. Most of the hate is related to how often they win and being at the top of their sport. There’s no denying that fans respect their talents, even if they aren’t fans of them personally. When it comes to Brady and LeBron, love them or hate them, they know how to win and you’d be unwise to bet against them.
Patrick Mahomes
The Patrick Mahomes comp is a little tougher. There aren’t any young players in the NBA right now that are leading their teams to the Finals and winning championships. The closest in age would be Anthony Davis, but he plays with LeBron James so the comp falls apart there. If Giannis had been able to make it to the Finals or even win one, he would be the perfect match. Luka Doncic is probably the NBA’s most likely player to become Patrick Mahomes-esque. He’s young and already one of the best players in the league, he just hasn’t had the postseason success yet. If I had to put money down on a young player to start winning championships, it would be him.
Steph Curry seems to be most similar to Mahomes. Curry won his first title at 26, Mahomes at 24. Curry went on to win 2 of the next 4 finals, beating LeBron for 3 of his titles, and only losing to him once. Mahomes had to battle Brady in 2018, losing in the conference championship, and now that they are in opposite conferences, they can face each other in the Super Bowl. Curry was attempting to take the crown from LeBron, just like Mahomes is hoping to do with Brady. Mahomes and Curry are both extremely popular athletes, well liked by most fans. They play the game with so much joy and make the game fun and enjoyable to watch.
Mahomes is considered by many to have the best arm in the entire league and has all the potential to be one of the greatest QBs of all time. Steph is considered to be the best shooter in the history of the NBA. They both appear to be beloved by teammates. They frequently make something out of nothing, improvising to make incredible plays. Like this 3 from Curry:
Or this play from Mahomes:
The biggest reason they are so similar is how much their style of play has impacted the game they play. For Curry, he spearheaded the shift in the importance of shooting 3’s and made it much more difficult to define a bad shot. Defenses were forced to adjust to a player like Curry. He’s influenced many of the young players coming up in the league today and teams have even built entire rosters designed to emphasize shooting 3’s.
Mahomes has had a similar impact on the NFL. Teams that face the Chiefs change up their offensive philosophy in order to keep up with Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Andy Reid has been able to create an entire offensive scheme that fits Mahomes’ strengths and it has led to their recent success. Teams have attempted to emulate that style of play, but haven’t been able to produce similar results because they don’t have Mahomes under center. Defenses have to focus most of their attention on Mahomes and try to slow him down.
Both athletes have the ability to score 14+ points in 5 minutes. Put simply, Curry shoots bombs and Mahomes throws them.
Mahomes is much younger and earlier in his career, but if he’s able to achieve similar title success to Curry’s, that would be an incredible accomplishment even if he can’t keep pace with Brady. If Mahomes were to win his second straight Super Bowl though, he’d be well on his way to making a run at Brady’s totals. The first time Curry and LeBron faced each other in the Finals, Curry came out on top. If this comparison holds, that’s a good sign for Mahomes.
See you next week!