Who do you draft to your favorite team - Lebron James or Connor McDavid?

[bobholly39]

You get a chance to draft either 18yr old Connor McDavid to your favorite hockey team or 18yr old Lebron James to your favorite basketball team. Who do you pick, and why?

In my opinion - Lebron James >> Connor McDavid in their respective sports. Lebron is more in the Gretzky/Lemieux hockey tier equivalent - and McDavid is clearly behind them. I'm not the biggest of basketball experts, and so maybe others will disagree with that assessment and think it's closer.

But this is a hockey forum, where many of us might be bigger hockey fans than basketball fans. Flipside is - hockey is more of a team sport, whereas in basketball a single player can have more influence on team success. And - further flipside - Lebron did win a championship with Cleveland eventually - but he didn't stay very long, leaving as a UFA - whereas McDavid may be easier to keep for longer in a hockey world.

So what option do you pick, and why? Do you add McDavid at 18 years old to your favorite hockey team, or Lebron at 18 years old to your favorite basketball team? Feel free to comment if your answer is solely based on "I'm not much of a basketball fan", or rather if you're a fan of both how you rationalize the choice.

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[thomast]

Lebron easily because he would make my team a contender every year even if i’m hockey first. Different sports, but Lebron would have much bigger impact on community and city overall.

 

[Rengorlex]

Hockey team because I don't watch basketball.

But, obviously Lebron is more impactful than McDavid if the goal is to win a championship. And that's not even a commentary on who's better relative to their sport.

 

[Hockeyholic]

LBJ obviously.

A great NBA player immediately makes a team a contender.

Same can't be said for NHL.

 

[waitin425]

LBJ obviously.

A great NBA player immediately makes a team a contender.

Same can't be said for NHL.

Not quite. Why else would he have "taken his talents" to D-Wade and CB4 to chase that championship.

Cleveland win - Kyrie and K-love

LA win - Davis

Lebron has always been surrounded by elite talent. He is the most elite. But still needs the help.

 

[RefalancheStillLose]

1 player can impact a basketball gage result more than 1 player can impact a hockey game.
That said give me McDavid, basketball sucks and LeBron is a whiny bitch

 

[bobholly39]

LBJ obviously.

A great NBA player immediately makes a team a contender.

Same can't be said for NHL.

Two biggest counters to consider are:

1. This is a hockey forum. If you're a big enough fan of hockey over basketball, choice is obvious

2. Lebron is now on his 4th team. In comparison, players of McDavid's magnitude in the NHL almost always stay in the same city their whole career (Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Kane, Stamkos, Price, etc) for some recent names. So - good chance you can keep McDavid much longer

 

[ijuka]

Don't really care at all about basketball so why would I care where lebron james plays? Weird question.

 

[Machinehead]

McDavid because I just care more about the Rangers tbh

I do think LeBron is probably a better player

 

[ManofSteel55]

I'd say McDavid. My first thought was that it doesn't really matter who drafted Lebron as he jumped from contender to contender so often once he was eligible to. I don't think McDavid does that. He might not be a "one team until retirement" guy, as few are, but I don't see him being the kind of person who makes the demands that Lebron does either.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

Not quite. Why else would he have "taken his talents" to D-Wade and CB4 to chase that championship.

Cleveland win - Kyrie and K-love

LA win - Davis

Lebron has always been surrounded by elite talent. He is the most elite. But still needs the help.

LeBron took a crap cavs team to the NBA finals in 07 and the ECF in 09 and it took a celtics super team to knock him out in 08 and 2010. He went to Miami because the cavs organization was a joke, the best help they brought him in 7 years was a 40 year old shaq. But he can definitely do more with a group of no names than McDavid or any hockey player can.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Id rather Jordan. Lebron will leave asap to form a super team

 

[bigskookum]

Russell Westbrook

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

I'd say McDavid. My first thought was that it doesn't really matter who drafted Lebron as he jumped from contender to contender so often once he was eligible to. I don't think McDavid does that. He might not be a "one team until retirement" guy, as few are, but I don't see him being the kind of person who makes the demands that Lebron does either.

LeBron didn't "jump from contender to contender". When he joined Miami in 2010, they had just lost in the 1st round and hadn't won a playoff series since 2006. When he came back to Cleveland in 2014, they hadn't even made the playoffs since he left in 2010. When he joined LA in 2018, they hadn't made the playoffs since 2012. This wasn't Durant joining the warriors.

 

[KoozNetsOff 92]

LeBron by a mile. Where ever you are in the GOAT debate, LeBron is way higher on the all time NBA list than McDavid will ever be on the NHL list. But more importantly, NBA players play basically the whole game in the playoffs and have a way bigger impact on the game. Go and check the cavs teams LeBron took to the finals in 07 and 2018, there's no way McDavid or any hockey player is doing that. There isn't any NBA player who has done it either.

 

[avsfan9]

Can we take Jordan instead or Gretzky instead?

 

[COHawk]

A single basketball player has way more effect on the outcome of games/success of a team than one hockey player. So the logical answer is without a doubt Lebron.

I don't like and don't watch basketball though. So with that in mind people who like hockey more will go McDavid.

Not quite. Why else would he have "taken his talents" to D-Wade and CB4 to chase that championship.

Cleveland win - Kyrie and K-love

LA win - Davis

Lebron has always been surrounded by elite talent. He is the most elite. But still needs the help.

The Cavs were contenders with Lebron in his first stint with the team. Just cause you don't win doesn't mean you aren't a contender. He took them to the finals once and at least to the 2nd round of the playoffs 4 other times.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Lebron, how is this poll not a landslide?

 

[dr robbie]

I feel the offseason coming...

 

[John Mandalorian]

Lebron, how is this poll not a landslide?

Because you also have all the other stuff with Lebron. Also, some might have a strong preference for hockey. If you strongly prefer hockey over basketball, choosing Lebron kind of means saying you'll choose basketball over hockey.

 

[rangersfansince08]

lbj

 

[orby]

A better question: would you draft Connor McDavid to your favorite basketball team, or LeBron James to your favorite hockey team?

 

[Mickey Marner]

LeBron wasn't any worse offensively relative to his sport, while also being an elite defensive player in his prime.

 

[abo9]

Idk a thing about Basketball, but is Lebron really in the Gretzky tier? Gretzky's got a 48.7% point lead over the next best point producer. He's kind of the GOAT of GOATs, an outlier amongst outliers.

And I don't see anyone in the league who could even close that gap right now. Even McDavid would have to sustain that play for 1500 career games to close the gap a bit.

That said, McDavid is 25 years old and the 7th NHL player in history to get 4 Art Rosses - 2 more and he's in the company of the GOATs of the game (Lemieux, Howe have 6, Gretzky being Gretz has 10). That's not counting other individual awards like Ted Lindsays, Hart, or his insane point dominance over his peers by modern NHL standards.

So, I'm questioning, how incredible is James domination in basketball to be compared to Gretzky (or Lemieux), which would make him much better in his sport than McDavid in hockey - who's accomplishing things only one outlier amongst outliers has accomplished.

A better question: would you draft Connor McDavid to your favorite basketball team, or LeBron James to your favorite hockey team?

Clearly McDavid to a basketball team. He would probably atrocious compared to the NBA standards, and completely out of place with his body build, but he'd have the fitness to run around and do "stuff". It'd be entertaining.

LeBron James probably could not even skate, so that's boring.

 

[North Cole]

Instructions unclear, drafted Ronaldo