If you’ve never tried an NBA versus tennis star comparison, a rising star on the court has done it for you. His guinea pigs? Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant whom he put in parallel with the three pillars of the little yellow ball.
With such a proliferation of superstars in the world of sport, it is not uncommon for athletes to sometimes be compared to others from different disciplines. To do this, we generally analyze the impact they have had or the way they perform. Some time ago, it was on the wrestling side that NBA players had the right to such a comparison, WWE star seeing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Michael Jordan.
For the latest example, we leave the fight ring to go to the tennis court. Indeed, an athlete of the little yellow ball recently played the game, in the person of Matteo Berrettini. Ranked world number 7 at the end of 2021, the Italian wanted to compare the legends of his sport to those of the big league. For this, he had in his sights the three most famous basketball players of the last 30 years:
Matteo Berrettini compares NBA stars to tennis stars
Who is the LeBron James of tennis?
Matteo Berrettini compares the ‘Big Three’ to basketball legends ????????????
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) January 6, 2021
Rafael Nadal is the LeBron of tennis, in terms of physicality and because they both exploded onto the scene at a very young age. Roger Federer, I would compare him to Michael Jordan. Novak Djokovic reminds me of Kobe Bryant for the way he stays cool and stoic in difficult situations.
In this sense, the comparison between Nadal and the King is particularly relevant, since we quickly saw these two nuggets become absolute references in their respective disciplines. Above all, they still manage to dominate years later, relying ever more on their science of the game to defeat their opponents. As for Federer / MJ difficult not to make the parallel when you see their respective records.
Finally, Berrettini hits the bullseye one last time by pairing Djokovic with Mamba, both known to be workaholics and outstanding technicians. Some gossips might however add that they also share the pans… Kobe has been accused of rape during his career, while the Djoker has been denied access to the Australian Open 2022 at the point of be excluded from the national territory, despite legal proceedings. In question, his refusal of vaccination which has made waves recently.
Matteo Berrettini did pretty well this time around, and surely every athlete mentioned can feel honored by the comparison. After all, we know how to recognize each other between absolute legends of sport!
