Patrick Mahomes joins NFL vs. NBA discourse, claims OKC star can transition to football

Patrick Mahomes is not one to offer many basketball takes. That's because he played the sport only briefly in high school before deciding to stick to football and become one of the greatest players in NFL history.

On Saturday, though, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and his wife Brittany were at the American Airlines Center in Dallas to watch the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals.

During the broadcast, he told commentators Dave Pasch and Hubie Brown that he believed Thunder guard Luguentz Dort could thrive as an NFL linebacker:

That's not the first time Mahomes had said something regarding the NBA, though. During media day for Super Bowl LVIII, he had a bold projection for what would have happened had he pursued professional basketball instead:

"If I played basketball, I'd be just like Steph Curry. I've got the shot. I just got to get a couple little extra reps, couple shots up, I'll be shooting just like him. That's who I'd be."

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How Patrick Mahomes' basketball background influenced his NFL play

One of the most fascinating aspects of Patrick Mahomes' style of play in the NFL is his ability to improvise and make plays in a creative way that only he and few others know.

In September 2023, Sports Illustrated's Greg Bishop described Mahomes' skill as follows:

"Mahomes dips and spins and darts, regardless of body position. Mahomes slings footballs from the oddest angles, throws touchdown passes with a vicious sidearm delivery or while leaping and midair, and tosses short attempts underhand, as if shoveling loaves of bread toward open teammates."

All those attributes emanate from his basketball background, as Ryan Tomlin, his basketball coach at Whitehouse High School, explained:

“You know, just the arm angles he uses to sling that thing. I mean, Pat was a great, great, great distributor of the basketball.”

One of the earliest instances of such influence on display occurred in a December 2018 game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Patrick Mahomes moved around the pocket, looked to his right and threw to his left - a no-look pass in football. Tomlin's successor Brent Kelley would recall:

“Oh, my gosh, did he really just do that? It’s a freaking NFL game, you know.”

Even Chiefs owner Clark Hunt could only watch in awe, saying ahead of Super Bowl LIV:

“They’d say ‘no look,’ but I had never heard of a no-look pass, except in basketball... I didn’t know that was possible.”

Patrick Mahomes' current contract, which he signed after winning said Super Bowl, explicitly bans him from playing basketball.