I don’t ever want to disrespect another sport. I understand that each sport has its own nuances, skills, disciplines, rules, strategies, tactics, etc. I understand that different athletes train for their specific sport in certain ways. Like I wouldn’t expect an NBA player to just suddenly suit up on the soccer field and try to win a Gold medal. Same can be said for so many other sports, such as track & field, field hockey, swimming, skateboarding, tennis, golf, fencing, etc.
However, I’ve been watching a ton of handball games during these Olympics, and I can’t help but think that if you placed the NBA’s best athletes (biggest, strongest, and/or fastest) who have great passing and dribbling skills into that sport, that they would just instantly wipe the floor with any opponent on the court. The skills seem almost transferable and translatable. No one is tackling/stopping (I don’t know the exact handball wording, but when the defense is just collapsing onto the player with the ball as they’re entering the hash marked zone before the goal/net) someone like LeBron James when he’s going in full speed for a superman throwing motion with the ball towards the goalie? And who on the handball court is driving or dribbling by the best NBA defenders who are super fast with long arm spans? I feel like a lot of the players would get blocked or have their shots/passes ripped away. The NBA athletes are too explosive. Same could be same for NFL players, but I feel as if out of all the Olympic sports, handball is the most transferable in terms of skill and athleticism where a team of elite NBA players could just win it outright while learning on the job.
I don’t want to sound disrespectful or uncouth, cuz I’m sure their are dedicated handball fans and people who understand the sport on a deeper scale than I do, but I just can’t help but feel (as Im watching the games) as if NBA players could dominate that sport and dominate it fairly quickly.
Btw, I do enjoy watching the handball games during the Olympics. The sport slaps, and I kind of wish it was more popular here. It looks super fun.
This and the posts about 3x3 really show me people don’t know much about how hard it is to be an elite athlete in a sport.
The best tennis singles players in the world can’t even win in tennis doubles, and you think basketball players can win in a completely separate sport in handball, which is a way bigger difference than tennis singles and doubles.
Noah Lyles is won the 100m and probably the 200m barring an upset, but if he tried the 110m hurdles or the 400m, he wouldn’t even make the Olympics.
In order to do something like this, you would already have had to be an incredible talent in that other sport (handball) in an early age, but no NBA player was. Chase Budinger is playing beach volleyball, but he was already the best volleyball player in HS.