If Kyle Singler Had Grown Up Playing Soccer...

[Henderson]

He'd be doing this.

If you aren't already a soccer fan, the woman in the black dress and heels at :40, 1:00, 1:07 and 1:41 will make you one.

[the_grad_student]

He'd be doing this.

If you aren't already a soccer fan, the woman in the black dress and heels at :40, 1:00, 1:07 and 1:41 will make you one.

Funny you say this because Kyle Singler was on my soccer team back in the day. And I remember him being pretty good at it (shocking!)

[DevilWearsPrada]

Funny you say this because Kyle Singler was on my soccer team back in the day. And I remember him being pretty good at it (shocking!)

I remember Coach K saying at the Basketball Banquet that Kyle plays "WINNER" no matter what his position is in the game!!!!

And Kyle always GETS BUCKETS!!!!!

[Furniture]

I guess you Americans do like Football (soccer).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=sS172L6Cmv8[/url]

[flyingdutchdevil]

...basketball players would make awful soccer players. Being too tall in soccer (6'5"+) is a huge disadvantage. The game is played so low that it's often tough for tall players to succeed. Also, while heading is an essential part of the game, being tall does not guarantee that you are better at heading and NO PLAYER would be taken seriously if his only asset is heading.

Peter Crouch, Per Mertesacker, and Fernando Llorente are arguably the only good tall players out there, and Peter Crouch is pretty terrible. Also, none of these players are even 6'8", and they are arguably the only good tall players.

Now, having someone like Kyrie Irving who moves so quick backwards and forwards and has the ability to see the floor? That could make for a decent soccer player.

[Bostondevil]

Being too tall in soccer (6'5"+) is a huge disadvantage. The game is played so low that it's often tough for tall players to succeed.

Please.

Kyle would play goalie.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Please.

Kyle would play goalie.

I can't name you one star keeper over 6'6". Van der Sar, the tallest keeper I know, is 6'6". The best keepers in the world - Neuer, Buffon, and de Gea - are all 6'4".

[Des Esseintes]

...basketball players would make awful soccer players. Being too tall in soccer (6'5"+) is a huge disadvantage. The game is played so low that it's often tough for tall players to succeed. Also, while heading is an essential part of the game, being tall does not guarantee that you are better at heading and NO PLAYER would be taken seriously if his only asset is heading.

Peter Crouch, Per Mertesacker, and Fernando Llorente are arguably the only good tall players out there, and Peter Crouch is pretty terrible. Also, none of these players are even 6'8", and they are arguably the only good tall players.

Now, having someone like Kyrie Irving who moves so quick backwards and forwards and has the ability to see the floor? That could make for a decent soccer player.

That's simplistic. Northern European teams often have a number of guys over six feet. Not over 6'7", no, but plenty of guys between 6'0" and 6'4". While that's not prototypical NBA size, there are a ton of guys in the Association with similar measurements. I mean, yes, NBA players are not likely to be as good at soccer as at basketball, but what sane person would argue otherwise? What *could* be argued, easily, is that if soccer was America's #1 sport, a number of dudes who play right now in the NBA would have flourishing futbol careers.

[flyingdutchdevil]

That's simplistic. Northern European teams often have a number of guys over six feet. Not over 6'7", no, but plenty of guys between 6'0" and 6'4". While that's not prototypical NBA size, there are a ton of guys in the Association with similar measurements. I mean, yes, NBA players are not likely to be as good at soccer as at basketball, but what sane person would argue otherwise? What *could* be argued, easily, is that if soccer was America's #1 sport, a number of dudes who play right now in the NBA would have flourishing futbol careers.

Agreed. And I'd argue that they would be PGs and SGs, not SFs and PFs.

It's not simplistic at all. Basketball requires a height advantage to be successful. There aren't a lot of players in the league who are 5'10" and shorter (5'10" is the average height of an American). Soccer requires a unique balance of speed, strength, stamina, agility, and footwork. Shorter players may struggle with the strength aspect. Taller players may struggle with the stamina / agility. Also, because anyone can play soccer, it's a numbers game. I'd argue that the average soccer player resembles the height of an average individual from that country.

Lastly, if you argue that tall players can be good at soccer, then how come there aren't many players taller than 6'3"? Why isn't there a star taller than 6'7"?

[Henderson]

Agreed. And I'd argue that they would be PGs and SGs, not SFs and PFs.

It's not simplistic at all. Basketball requires a height advantage to be successful. There aren't a lot of players in the league who are 5'10" and shorter (5'10" is the average height of an American). Soccer requires a unique balance of speed, strength, stamina, agility, and footwork. Shorter players may struggle with the strength aspect. Taller players may struggle with the stamina / agility. Also, because anyone can play soccer, it's a numbers game. I'd argue that the average soccer player resembles the height of an average individual from that country.

Lastly, if you argue that tall players can be good at soccer, then how come there aren't many players taller than 6'3"? Why isn't there a star taller than 6'7"?

It's helpful to be a bit taller if you are a goal keeper. It also helps on set pieces where getting a head on the ball counts (I think US vs. Ghana demonstrates the principle), but unlike American football or basketball, it's not really a critically important asset (why would it be useful? keeping goal and headers, ok, but there's a lot more to soccer than winning headers, and most players are not goal keepers).

Here's a good perspective on the issue in soccer, complete with charts and graphs and statistics: http://achimkemmerling.wordpress.com...m-in-football/

And here's another pointing out that size seems to matter up to a point and that professional soccer players tend to be taller than other males from the same country, also with stats and charts and other scientific-looking alchemy: http://achimkemmerling.wordpress.com...m-in-football/

But yeah, you don't see the 6-8 athletes in these countries focusing on soccer. They drift toward basketball I guess, where their height is an advantage rather than either a non-issue or just a hindrance to quickness.

[Henderson]

I'm not sure that unlimited height is an advantage in basketball either, come to think of it. There are a lot of people in the world taller than 7'2", but very few of them make really good basketball players. You'd think it might be a huge advantage in basketball if anywhere. But lack of quickness seems to be a theme in basketball too when a player is super tall. I'm thinking about Manute Bol, for example.

Chuck "Ankle Breaker" Nevitt is the primary counter example of course. Dude combined the height of Shawn Bradley with the mustache of Adam Morrison. What could go wrong? And I'm not disparaging Nevitt. I have a great deal of admiration for him, the way he played out his career, and what he's done post-basketball.

[Des Esseintes]

...basketball players would make awful soccer players...
Now, having someone like Kyrie Irving who moves so quick backwards and forwards and has the ability to see the floor? That could make for a decent soccer player.

That's simplistic. Northern European teams often have a number of guys over six feet. Not over 6'7", no, but plenty of guys between 6'0" and 6'4". While that's not prototypical NBA size, there are a ton of guys in the Association with similar measurements. I mean, yes, NBA players are not likely to be as good at soccer as at basketball, but what sane person would argue otherwise? What *could* be argued, easily, is that if soccer was America's #1 sport, a number of dudes who play right now in the NBA would have flourishing futbol careers.

Agreed. And I'd argue that they would be PGs and SGs, not SFs and PFs.

It's not simplistic at all. Basketball requires a height advantage to be successful. There aren't a lot of players in the league who are 5'10" and shorter (5'10" is the average height of an American). Soccer requires a unique balance of speed, strength, stamina, agility, and footwork. Shorter players may struggle with the strength aspect. Taller players may struggle with the stamina / agility. Also, because anyone can play soccer, it's a numbers game. I'd argue that the average soccer player resembles the height of an average individual from that country.

Lastly, if you argue that tall players can be good at soccer, then how come there aren't many players taller than 6'3"? Why isn't there a star taller than 6'7"?

Point guards and shooting guards are basketball players. Which is why I took issue with your, yes, simplistic statement that "basketball players would make awful soccer players." In that same post, you yourself mentioned Kyrie, who happens to play basketball for a living. I'm not even sure if you read my post. The point isn't that all NBA players would be good at soccer; they wouldn't. Nor that lots of soccer players would be excellent at basketball; they wouldn't. Rather, the point is that when you are talking about elite athletic talent pools such as the NBA and EPL, it's reasonable to expect some guys who were excellent at the one sport to also have excelled in a different life at the other. It's a Venn diagram that mostly overlaps in players 6'0" to 6'4", of whom there are *plenty*--albeit of course not a majority--in both leagues. Moreover, "tall" is a pretty relative term. The average American male is about 5'10". The Dutch WC starting XI, just as an example, has seven players about 6'0" or taller. That's not NBA tall, but NBA height is freakish. In regular human terms, those men are tall. I don't remember them stumbling over their cloddish limbs on the regular while routing Spain 5-1, but perhaps I didn't watch with the experienced eye of a soccer expert.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Point guards and shooting guards are basketball players. Which is why I took issue with your, yes, simplistic statement that "basketball players would make awful soccer players." In that same post, you yourself mentioned Kyrie, who happens to play basketball for a living. I'm not even sure if you read my post. The point isn't that all NBA players would be good at soccer; they wouldn't. Nor that lots of soccer players would be excellent at basketball; they wouldn't. Rather, the point is that when you are talking about elite athletic talent pools such as the NBA and EPL, it's reasonable to expect some guys who were excellent at the one sport to also have excelled in a different life at the other. It's a Venn diagram that mostly overlaps in players 6'0" to 6'4", of whom there are *plenty*--albeit of course not a majority--in both leagues. Moreover, "tall" is a pretty relative term. The average American male is about 5'10". The Dutch WC starting XI, just as an example, has seven players about 6'0" or taller. That's not NBA tall, but NBA height is freakish. In regular human terms, those men are tall. I don't remember them stumbling over their cloddish limbs on the regular while routing Spain 5-1, but perhaps I didn't watch with the experienced eye of a soccer expert.

I should have specified then about SGs and above. Being tall is a detriment in soccer and, going back to the original point, a player like Kyle Singler would have a very, very difficult time competing in a sport built for players who aren't 6'8".

The Dutch are the world's tallest male nation, so I'm not surprised by a tall starting XI. I am Dutch, and I can assure you there are plenty of "freakishly tall" men in Holland. I am 6'3" myself, and I feel short in my own country. And a ton of them play soccer (90% of the country belongs to a football club of sorts). However, none of these men ever become good enough to play in the Eredivisie. Also, the tallest starter on the Dutch starting XI is a whopping 6'3" (Ron Vlaar and Stefan de Vrij, both full-backs, the position often with the tallest players). 6'3" is ideal height for a PG and tiny for an SG. So, yes, maybe 20% of the NBA would qualify as potential soccer players.