Hardwood Paroxysm: Basketball’s Multi-Sport Athletes

LeBron James Would Make a Great Poker Player

By Steve McPherson (@steventurous)

It wasn’t always so. We recently learned of LeBron’s prodigious memory, the kind of thing that would give him a leg up at the table in terms of knowing which cards have been played and keeping track of his opponents’ tells and patterns. But from The Decision to The Countoff to The Cough, James has done his fair share of showing his hand or bluffing and failing. But give the man credit this year: there was no nationwide tour of different possible destinations like Carmelo Anthony, no telegraphing of intentions for several painful years like Dwight Howard, no gradual crumbling like Kevin Love. Despite the rumors, the most likely outcome was James returning to Miami with a full house but then, with little fanfare or drama, he calmly removed his hologram cat’s eye sunglasses and laid out a straight flush by returning to Cleveland. In a sports world obsessed with intensity, grit and blood, James has become its coolest customer, with a fully developed awareness of when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when to walk away and when to run.

Russell Westbrook Would be the Perfect Full-back

By Jared Dubin (@JADubin5)

I just got into soccer this year, but from what I can tell, Russell Westbrook. would make a perfect modern full-back. In Mike L. Goodman’s “How to Watch the World Cup Like a True Soccer Nerd” preview at Grantland, he noted the recent rise of attacking full-backs like Brazil’s Dani Alves, who I view as the mold of what Westbrook the soccer player would look like.

That type of run is something Alves is one of the best in the world at. If you’ve never seen Alves play but fell in love with the USMNT during this World Cup cycle, chances are you saw lightning fast DeAndre Yedlin making similar runs up and down the sideline. Players like Alves and Yedlin use their speed and ferocity to blow past wingers and defenders by making overlapping or underlapping runs and then attack the goal with fury, whether with a shot or a well-timed cross.

Westbrook’s uncommon burst and relentlessness would make him a perfect fit as this type of full-back. Sure, he’d need a stout center back and a winger who could fall back on defense to protect for him when he made these type of runs, but the amount of pressure he could put on the opposition with these type of plays would be a sight to behold.