LeBron James could be the best handball player in the world with only six months of training according to the US handball coach
Watching the 2016 Rio Olympics handball competition, fans will notice that Team USA is not represented in either the men’s or women’s events. While that may not come as a shock considering that handball isn’t exactly one of the four major sports in the United States, it’s hard to not look at a sport that entails speed, athleticism, and power all at once and think that the US doesn’t have the athletes to compete internationally at handball.
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Apparently the coach of the US men’s handball team feels the exact same way.
Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post spoke to US men’s handball coach Javier Garcia Cuesta (per For The Win) about the prospect of Cleveland Cavaliers forward and one of the best athletes on the planet in LeBron James taking up handball. Essentially, Cuesta was asked how long it would take LeBron to become the best handball player in the world.
His answer: six months.
Cuesta wasn’t the only one singing the praises of LeBron James as a potential handball god as Denmark player Mikkel Hansen, probably the current best player in the world, even couldn’t fully deny that having a 6-8 super athlete with great vision and great passing ability could probably dominate his sport with the right training.
Quite frankly, there are numerous NBA players and other athletes that fit this bill. If you’re saying that guys like Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, Cam Newton, Bryce Harper, and so on couldn’t be handball superstars with the right training, you’re kidding yourself.
The challenge for Cuesta and any subsequent US handball coach, though, is to get these types of athletes to take up the sport at a young age. Until it becomes more popular in the United States, that’s hard to see happening.