Since the NBA is Locked out and football is in full swing, we decided to put together our list of who we think would start on a 22-man NFL Football team consisting completely of current NBA players. We broke it down into five parts, and this is the third one. Click here for Part 1: The Defensive Front Seven and here for Part 2: The Offensive Line
Defensive Backs:
After he hit up John Clayton on Twitter yesterday, LeBron James came at me with one of those ‘follow for DM’ tweets asking if he was going to make our NBA Football squad over here at Crossover Chronicles. I told dude to stay tuned, maybe he would later this week, but he hasn’t yet. Nor will he make it today, because today we’re posting the cut-list for the Corner Backs and Safeties on Coach Garcia’s door after practice, and James isn’t on that one either.
Those spots belong to four guys, and they are as follows:
Right Corner Back: Deron Williams
Left Corner Back: Derrick Rose
Strong Safety: Russell Westbrook
Free Safety: Gerald Wallace
So first off, congrats to those guys. The NBA is loaded with players who really could, and would, be ridiculously freaky Defensive Backs if that’s what they wanted to be. We saw something in these four guys especially, though, that separated them from the rest and got them onto this roster.
Nnamdi Asomugha, as an NFL example, is 6’2″ tall and I think there’s probably around 10 or 15 PG’s scattered about in the Association that can run with Nnamdi while at the same time check it at 6’3″ or taller. Whether they can hit like Nnamdi or not is something we’ll find out later, but I think the guys we picked have a decent chance to bring the proverbial wood out there. We also think that Deron Williams and Derrick Rose could even possibly have their own islands too like the guy from New York, but we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. We’ll just say for now, that Rose and Williams will each be tough to shake down their respective sidelines.
At one Safety spot behind those guys, we have Gerald Wallace running wild through the secondary just looking to take people’s heads off from his Free Safety position. We think he’d really make opposing receivers think twice coming across the middle, and frankly so will our other safety too. At the SS position, Russell Westbrook was a no-brainer. He is most definitely our Strong Safety, and Westbrook actually issued the following statement after I texted him the news:
“I used to play football, I was pretty good [in high school]. I think I could make a solid receiver, but I think I’d make a really nice safety.” – Russell Westbrook
Which was why we have you there, Russ. Don’t let me down.
Phillip Rossman-Reich contributed to this series; tomorrow will be Part 4: The Offensive Skill Positions (QB, RB, WR, TE)
Photo: BucketsOnDeck
