Stephen A Smith responded to the Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt’s statement about Michael Jordan and Patrick Mahomes on First Take today.
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Earlier, Hunt had affirmed his belief that Patrick Mahomes could well overtake Michael Jordan in popularity. This, he believes, is because Mahomes already has a lot of success at the age of 25. One could clearly see the differences in team accomplishments between the two by this stage of their careers.
Hunt cited Mahomes’ fabulous 2018 MVP campaign, in which he led the Chiefs to the AFC Championship game. Mahomes followed that up with his first Super Bowl last year, which ended in his favor.
MJ, by contrast, didn’t win a championship till he was 28. It’s a different matter that he ended up with 6 of them with the Bulls.
Stephen A Smith on Patrick Mahomes vs Michael Jordan
Stephen A presented a number of valid arguments on today’s show regarding why the comparison is invalid. The following are a few snippets of the same:
“Mahomes is fantastic, he’s phenomenal, he’s a champion – we get all of that. Last time I checked, he doesn’t play defense, he doesn’t play a specialty. When you’re looking at Michael Jordan, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. The fact of the matter is, a superstar basketball player has more impact because he plays on both ends.”
“Patrick Mahomes is phenomenal, but let’s stick to him as a quarterback. When you’re talking about comparing him to MJ, I think you’re going too far. I don’t subscribe to this comparison.”
Stephen A is entirely correct in his assessment. Not only is football a true team game, it has many replaceable and moving parts through the course of the game. Basketball, in contrast, is a much more free-flowing game with a player having to play both ends effectively in order to dominate individually. It lends itself to individual dominance much better than football.
