NBA vs. FIFA

Bill Simmon's wrote an article recently about his experience watching the US vs. Mexico match at Azteca stadium. It evolved a bit into his take on the state of US soccer as a whole, making the common observation that the best US athletes don't usually pursue soccer. This prompted a barroom discussion between myself and a friend last night about which active American athletes would have made sensational soccer players had they gone in that direction.

To those that feel inclined to debate whether soccer sucks or not, now would be a good time for you to return to the main page.

Some of my considerations:

Visible athletic ability - This is obvious, and the source of the debate.

Kinetic skills - The best example I can think of would be decathletes. Their speed, endurance and strength would never limit their ceiling for soccer, but they don't have much chance to demonstrate their ability to pass a ball accurately (or the ability to see the open man in the first place). Similarly, while I think NFL cornerbacks are some of the greatest athletes alive, they don't have to handle a ball much, and I feel that detracts from an argument that they'd make great soccer players.

..... On another level, some players are very skilled, but their exhibited skill sets are so narrow, it seems difficult to envision them doing more than just that one thing. NFL kickers, or baseball pitchers (think Mariano Rivera and his wicked cutter) come to mind. In soccer, while there is a place for, for example, set play specialists, you need to be able to do multiple things well. While a baseball player can make an incredible career out of doing one thing really well, they pretty much have to be both an All-Star hitter and Gold Glove fielder to make me consider them here.

Size - While Walter Jones (sad news, by the way) and Cecil Fielder are evidently very talented, I can't seriously picture them running up and down the field for 90 minutes. For this reason, lineman are pretty much universally excluded from consideration in my mind, as are the fatties in baseball. Some of this is conditioning, I know, so perhaps a linebacker or someone like that could play soccer - I'm not sure.

Height - NBA players look the most like footballers to me - they do lots of sprinting, are incredibly skilled, should be able to see plays develop, etc. However, some guys just seem too tall. Peter Crouch appears to sufficiently define this ceiling, so to be approaching 6'6" or taller, you'd have to really be something special.

By position, my dream team looks like:

Striker - Allen Iverson (If his skills were in any way transferable, he would have been all world spectacular - maybe one of the best strikers of all time)
Striker - Michael Vick (minus the psycho/headcase aspect)
Center Mid -  Jason Kidd
Center Mid - Chris Paul (him and J- Kidd are essentially playing the PG position of a soccer team here)
Outside Mid - Ken Griffey, Jr. (left handed, which would help playing on that side)
Outside Mid - Dwyane Wade (would win every corner kick or cross in the history of the universe)
Center back - Champ Bailey (was an all-American quality football player in multiple positions in college - offense, defense, and special teams)
Center back - Kobe Bryant (though I hate to admit it)
Outside back - Adrian Peterson (After soccer conditioning, who knows what he'd look like, but as of now would make Wayne Rooney look like a creampuff.)
Outside back - Evan Longoria
Goalie - Lebron James (could probably be a professional in ANY sport)

Sub - Nnamdi Asomugha
Sub - Jimmy Rollins (spark plug off the bench)
Sub - Brandon Roy (I picture him as being a great sub for the midfield. Everything he does is so well controlled - he is the sort of guy that could control the pace of play down the stretch.)

(Seriously, try to picture LeBron James at keeper for the US national team. I'm drooling at the thought of it. I think he could supplant Tim Howard after 6 months of training. Hell, while he's at it, he could just go ahead and be the best keeper in the history of the sport in one year.)

To bring it back to the NBA and the Blazers, how do you think NBA athletes could transfer their skills to soccer? Brandon Roy in particular? Are there any athletes you think I totally overrate or forgot about completely?

T$