One of the few people qualified to quantify the legacy left by Tom Brady and LeBron James is Charles Barkley. The Chuckster was decisive in picking Brady.
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Tom Brady announced his retirement from the NFL for a second time this past month. The 7-time Super Bowl champion made an announcement to that effect last season as well, after losing the NFC championship game to the Rams.
But this time around, his decision to hang up his boots seems to be ringing a much more final tone. He is now well past the age of 45. Father Time does eventually catch up with everyone.
One man who is yet to feel the true effects of ageing out of greatness is LeBron James. Even in his 20th season, James is a 99th percentile athlete in the NBA. He’s scoring 30 points per game even now and is by far the most effective 38-year-old in the NBA ever.
Charles Barkley breaks down why Tom Brady has a better career than LeBron James
Charles Barkley was recently a guest with Dan Patrick on the latter’s show. Dan has had Chuck on his show quite a few times over the years, with great conversations always ensuing.
This interview was no different as the duo went through a range of topics. One question that Barkley answered was whether Tom Brady has more incredible accomplishments than LeBron James. Charles went with the NFL legend:
“I think that we should appreciate Tom Brady more. You know Dan, I’ll explain to you why. Number one – 10 Super Bowls is incredible. But the thing that’s crazy – why I put football accomplishments over basketball accomplishments is because every game in the NFL is one game – you’re out there and done.”
“If you got Kareem, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kobe, LeBron, Michael – you’ve got the best player in every game. You can lose 1 game, you can lose 2 games. You can actually lose 3 games!”
“But to have every game be a Game 7, no matter how great your regular season was. To have every game be the end of your season. And for this man to make it to 10 Super Bowls, and win 7. It’s one of the greatest accomplishments in history.”
What will LeBron’s GOAT case look like after he passes Kareem?
James is currently 36 points short of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 tally over 20 seasons in the NBA. He’s going to surpass it in the next 3 days for sure.
He’s already top 5 on the all-time assists list as of now, conceivably ending at no. 3 or even no. 2. With 4 championships and 10 Finals appearances and all kinds of longevity stats to his name, his case as the GOAT over Michael Jordan gets stronger with each passing appearance.
Naysayers will point to Jordan’s peak and how it was probably a good deal better than James’. But they can no longer deny that James is now almost surely a 1B choice in GOAT debates. He’s earned that right by now.
