he wouldn't be able to cope cos AFL rewards players for being second to the ball

LeBron is pretty unfit.

He would dominate.

LEBron is a superior athelete and is extremley fit. You cannot play over 100 games a year if you weren't fit. He would have a natural ensurance level

At 6'9 you are not going to play on ball thus need heaps of endurance. Take young John Butcher as an expample. Play Lebron out of full forward. He would split the packs, take contested grabs and be a tackling machine givne his pace. He would intimate the sh%@t out of most defenders. I am sure he'd also be abel to pinch hit in the ruck.

Two words. Dean Brogan.

It would take him 3-4 years to build the skills and fitness but he would then dominate like Natanui.

Ha ha - can't believe it took that many posts to extract a finals-related joke. Poor form Hoopsters, poor form.

He would dominate.

He would not be able to cope with the endurance part of afl but would be a good marker and tackler

its a tough one but I agree with your mate, only just though!

He would struggle fitness wise.

LBJ's fitness levels are perfectly designed for him to sprint 20 odd meters down the court, jump, change direction etc. He is exceptional at using maximum energy over a 20/30 second burst.

However, with an AFL ground much longer and breaks in play less frequent, he would struggle (at his current fitness level) to sprint 50 meters, then handball or kick, then sprint again etc.

Remember that fitness programs are different in Basketball than they are in AFL (In Basketball, shorter sprints and required whereas AFL requires longer sprints and less rest.)

Thats just my opinion from a fitness perspective: He would have the size, speed, leaping ability etc to absolutely dominate.
But this wouldn't come out if he lacked the AFL-type fitness level.

mhmm i think he would be a good player but couldnt run out a whole afl game and would struggle with the endurance side of the afl

No-one in the AFL would come close for natural size, strength and athletic power.

Take for example Barry Hall, who would be considered to be a big unit in the AFL. Barry is 194 cm (6'4") and 104 kg. LeBron is 203 cm (6'8") and 113 kg, and I daresay would beat out Hall on most if not all athletic measures. In that regard, LeBron is just a freak. Barry might run a marathon faster, but perhaps not, endurance has never been a great strength or requirement for a stay-at-home forward such as Hall.

So the only question is - can LeBron kick an odd shaped ball?

I think he would get tackled once..Cry, then go back home.

I agree with Isaac, and I agree with Skud.

Would definitely be able to play. Coming from a basketballer turned footballer it would take him 1-2 seasons to adapt and it would be game over from there. Fitness would be a problem if he went straight into the game, but given if this scenario actually happened he would more than likely do a preseason and would not have any problems from there. He would dominate in the jumping ability and is not new to contact so would kill the ruck taps and the fact he can jump of both feet is only another skill a lot of rucks don't have.
His biggest challenge would be learning to kick and mark and the fact is he probably played a bit of Gridiron as a kid so marking wouldn't take long, so his kicking would take the longest to adapt. But hey, what ruckman knows how to kick properly anyway! ;)

Oh look, whenevah yer get a playah of the calibah of Jamsie back, it's always a big boost for the boys.

i cant see too many avid football watchers here otherwise you would know the long list of "athletes" teams have drafted over the years that have been absolute failures.

if you think hunt or folau look lost out there after watching the game for many years and being familiar with football ( hunt played as a kid) than imagine lebron running around like a chicken with his head cut off. yeah he will be bigger and faster, he will be running this way and that never in the right spots ,never reading the drop of the ball the ball in flight he would never touch it and then even if he did would just butcher it with disposal.

i can safely say lebron would not dominate a state league. what he couldve done if he had say theoretically moved here at a young age and played is anyones guess but he obviously has the natural gifts to be special.

brogan was very familiar with footy, grew up kicking a footy with mates played a bit as a kid and came over and spent years working very hard to become a good footballer.

phil.. dont think you understand what a lebron james 'dont argue' would look like. you would not be able to stop lebron james on the run with a football especially with how you can't tackle someone by the legs in afl.

Like fair enough, you can say all these things about skill and reading the drop of the ball in ball in flight with an elite nba player like kobe bryant, but we are talking about lebron james. He is a one in a million athlete, not to mention he's a little familiar with the shape of the ball (sort of) having played american football.

a lebron james dont argue would look like head high contact and several weeks off. all this is pointless if you cant find the ball. plenty of fast players in the game who cant find as much of the ball as others. you think there are better athletes than judd, ablett and sam mitchell going round in australia?? hell yeah there are, what they have is a great mix of athletic talent, skills and a footy brain. thats the thing you cant teach really.

nah there is zero correlation between being able to read the play in gridiron and football. both travel through the air differently.

nah there is zero correlation between being able to read the play in gridiron and football. both travel through the air differently.

I honestly don't understand why you are comparing LeBron James to the likes of Gary Ablett, Chris Judd etc. How about we compare him to big forwards/rucks to make the playing field more even? Your honestly telling me, a Dustin Fletcher or Matthew Scarlett could stop LeBron James from catching a ball in the forward 50? I'm giggling.

folau is ten times the athlete jay shultz is but shultz mopped the floor with him?? im telling you steven silvagni could line up on lebron tommorow and beat him. its about reading the play and the ball through the air and body positioning and body work. hell half the game is about pressure and that kida stuff you think lebron could lay a tackle on david rodan??

Depends how you're judging all this. If you're taking LeBron tomorrow and running him in the AFL, that's one thing. Others (myself included) are assuming we're giving him a bit of a training lead-up. Maybe a season to pick up the game - right now he wouldn't even know basic rules and of course he'd be largely useless.

Lebron would murder david rodan.. And Isaac, we are assuming a bit of a training leadup, yes.

A supreme athlete of James calibre wouldn't take long to becoming a dominant ruckman.

I mean if Mike Pike can play reasonably good footy before he was injured, just about anyone tall from the NBA could be developed into a competent ruckman at the very least.

The quality of athlete in America is pretty unique and impressive when you combine genetics with elite training and conditioning regimes from top college and high school programs.

cox is one of the most skilled big men going around. i suspect alot of bball fans commenting and not alot of big footy followers here.

honestly we know he (james) is a very unique and outstanding athlete. we are lucky to see him play basketball. but to examine what he could do in another sport is very speculative. who knows how good wanganeen or macleod would have been if soccer was their passion from early days??

anyway we could assume he could pick up the game in 1 year or 2 years?? i doubt it would be that easy but we couldnt know how well he would pick it up. you can take 2 identical athletes, same height build, speed agility will they be evenly matched in a sport?? no. one could be miles better than another. its something else.

honestly do you think athleticism decides everything?? there are many better athletes than say manu ginobli. how good an athlete is jamario moon?? how many lesser athletes are better than him because of skills and game iq

skills/ game iq >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> athleticism/ work ethic>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


its when you get a high level of all these things together you get something special ie lebron in bball, messi in soccer, judd in footy.

He's the greatest athlete in the world & would therefore dominate. He would struggle with the body contact & injuries however. He would destroy anyone in the ruck!

He would tear the competition apart once he mastered the oval ball. A few months' practice and he can take the ruck spot at Port Adelaide, no worries at all.

He'd dominate, but then kick 1.10 to lose his team the game

k Beantown

I'd be able to tackle Lebron :)

if he signs with Collingwood - he'd survive and dominate

if he signs with Adelaide - he'd cry and fail


simple



another interstate rivalry joke - no harm - no foul

Would be like Karmichael Hunt. Would love to see Lebron try and bounce a ball that isnt round though.

you guys are nuts seriously

we can all agree he is an amazing athlete.

can we agree athleticism is just a part of what makes someone a great in their sport?

being maybe able to run 20% quicker and jumping 20% higher and having an extra 30 kilos over your competitors will give you an edge over someone in a one on one battle but it will only get you so far. how many guys do i know that would be 20% faster and jump 20% higher and would be taller and stronger than someone like stevey milne or johncock or chad cornes and have never played higher than a mid division local football team? plenty , ill tell you. hunt didnt just pick up a footy when he signed the contract with gc he grew up in australia. he played football and rugby but went on with rugby. he understood the game, had played the game, is a fantastic athlete well suited to the sport and he struggled for a long time ( has now been training professional football for 2 years) and is just starting to get it together.

ill tell you what, if you could put together a team of usain bolt, asafa powell, steve hooker, thorpe and lance armstrong ill back a good local social team to beat them in basketball.

the ability to play a game >>>>>>>>>>>>>> over the ability to run and jump.

to believe that their athletic ability is what made guys like jordan, kobe and lebron superstars of the game is seriously undervaluing their talent at the sport and work ethic. i cant stress that last one enough. they spent many many years becoming stars of that sport but you think they could just become stars of another sport in a couple of years??

LeBron plays a ball sport which involves a lot of technical control of the ball (precision passing, dribbling, shooting) and moving without the ball. Bolt, Powell, Hooker, Thorpe and Armstrong don't play a ball sport.

I think LeBron could adapt. Biggest challenge would be kicking IMO.

LeBron could not dominate. even with 2 years training his sport is to different from everything he has done in his life. NBL players that have succeeded in football have grown up having a basic understanding of Football and most likely kicking the ball around at some point.
NFL is NOTHING like AFL, completely different no similair skills at all.

Size means nothing when your being tackled properly, the ability to slip the tackle is much more important, this is proven every game by smaller players.

LeBron has limited vision on the court let alone on a Football field 150m's long

this thread is getting ridiculous