What if LeBron Played Football? | Part 1

LeBron James is far and away the greatest athlete in sports history. I’ll go ahead and drop that bomb at the beginning to set the tone for what will be a completely nonsensical article based solely on hypothetical. Moving on, the question this series presents is still highly intriguing to fans of the Kid from Akron. As many know, LeBron played two years of football at St. Vincent-St. Mary and earned all-state honors in both seasons as a receiver. In this alternate timeline (I’ve decided to call it BB), we’ll analyze the heavy cultural ramifications that would come from The King opting to play football instead of basketball including the 2003 NBA Draft and following seasons (part one), the 2004 CFB season (part two), and the 2004-05 NFL season (part three).

2003 NBA DRAFT

The 2003 NBA Draft was labeled as the “LeBron Draft” months before the draft, or even the lottery took place. Basketball fans eagerly awaited the conclusion to the LeBron sweepstakes, which is still won by Cleveland in our BB timeline. With the consensus #1 pick in LeBron out of the picture, who becomes Cleveland’s savior? My money is on Carmelo Anthony for a few reasons. First off, there’s a serious case to be made for Melo’s March Madness run being the best ever. There was such an obvious separation between all other players and Melo, who went on to be named Most Outstanding Player. At this point, Melo was seen as a proven winner after leading Syracuse to a 30-5 record and the school’s first NCAA Tournament championship. That assumption is ironic now after he has yet to reach the NBA Finals once in his career. The only other significant change that comes in the draft is D-Wade going to Denver, creating a deadly backcourt with Andre Miller and a scary offensive unit with the rest of the playoff-bound Nuggets. Additionally, Darko and Bosh stay in their original draft positions and Kirk Hinrich moves up to the Miami Heat with the #5 pick.

1. Carmelo Anthony

2. Darko Milicic

3. Dwyane Wade

4. Chris Bosh

5. Kirk Hinrich

2003-04 NBA SEASON

Most of the 2003 season goes on without a hitch in the absence of LeBron outside of heightened TV ratings and the extremely successful Witness campaign from Nike. ROTY still goes to Cleveland’s Carmelo and the rest of the awards are unchanged. The Pistons still defeat the Lakers in quick and dominant fashion as the 2004-05 season rolls around.

2004-05 NBA DRAFT

For the sake of time, BB’s draft order will remain the same as the primary timeline. This is only going through 3 seasons and I’m not sure how much of an immediate impact Jameer Nelson makes. Dwight to Orlando is the only notable acquisition in one of the weaker drafts of the millennium.

2004-05 NBA SEASON

Over the real NBA offseason, the Miami Heat signed Shaq to compliment Dwyane Wade in his sophomore effort. This move paid off as the Heat were the #1 seed in the eastern conference and lost in 7 games to the Detroit Pistons. The Big Diesel still signs with Miami to pair with Kirk Hinrich, a significant downgrade. In a wild turn of events, Miami doesn’t even make the playoffs in BB which paves the way for the Cavs to sneak into the 8th seed and face the reigning champion Pistons. Despite that seismic shift, the Pistons still face the Spurs and lose in what is indisputably the least aesthetically pleasing Finals ever.

2005-06 NBA DRAFT

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have written about each draft in a 3 season hypothetical. While Chris Paul and Deron Willams certainly made an impact on the league, they didn’t affect the playoffs or overall power structure of the league at all. Apologies.

2005-06 NBA SEASON

Here we see the largest ripple effects from the 6’8 250lb hole in the NBA. In the first round of the playoffs, Wade’s 2 seeded Nuggets face their biggest challenge yet in the form of Kobe Bean Bryant while Melo is bounced for the second consecutive season by the New Jersey Nets. I see this as Wade’s formal arrival as the best guard in the league, similar to the real NBA season where he won his first title with Shaq. Wade’s hero journey continues as he defeats the 7 seconds or less Suns to advance to the conference finals against Dirk’s Mavericks. The Mavericks are a disastrous matchup for the Nuggets on paper with Nene being forced to neutralize the borderline unguardable German. However, I’ll give Denver the edge solely because I like the story of Wade ascending to the apex mountain of basketball greatness instead of LeBron.

I hope you enjoyed the overwhelmingly disappointing Part 1 of this series. Over the next 3 Wednesdays, we’ll look into the football side of LeBron’s decision with some input from our football writers. See you then.