Have you ever wondered what it was like watching the greatness of LeBron James unfold in real time back in the early-mid 2000’s? I think about it almost every day.
I’m currently reading a book by Ryan Jones titled: Believe the Hype — The LeBron James Story. It’s about how LeBron became a national sensation at 16 years old and why his dominance was all but guaranteed to continue into the NBA. 17 years, 16 All-Star appearances, 16 All-NBA selections, four MVP’s, four championships, four Finals MVP’s, and nearly 35,000 points later, every single word of that title rings true.
LeBron’s story reads like a prophecy more than a biography. He posed for a Sports Illustrated cover and dubbed “The Chosen One” as a 17-year-old junior in high school. He entered the NBA at the exact moment Michael Jordan exited, joining his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. He left Cleveland in 2010, but returned in 2014 to deliver a championship to his city that hadn’t tasted glory in 50 years. In 2016, he fulfilled that promise by completing a historic 3-1 comeback against the greatest regular season team of all time, concluding of the greatest sports stories ever told.
Despite all the accolades that make him arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time, LeBron’s greatest achievement is surpassing the impossible expectations placed on his teenage shoulders. Jones’ book was published before LeBron ever played an NBA game.
Watching Patrick Mahomes in 2020 is what I imagine watching LeBron James in the mid-2000’s felt like. It’s pure bliss combined with an overwhelming sensation that literally anything is possible on any play.
As noted by Robert Mays and Nate Tice a few weeks ago, Mahomes makes like four or five ridiculous throws every week that would be career highlights for many players. We don’t even blink when Mahomes throws them. This is not an exaggeration.
Yes, Mahomes has awesome teammates and an incredible offensive head coach. Andy Reid’s system in Kansas City is among the best in football. But have you ever considered that the whole reason the thing actually works is because of Mahomes? There’s a reason Kansas City traded up during the 2017 draft after Alex Smith had a career year in this exact system with these exact teammates.
In case you need a reminder of pre-Mahomes Kansas City football, Smith’s Chiefs blew a 21-3 halftime lead to Marcus Mariota’s Titans in the 2018 playoffs. Kansas City did not score in the second half.
In Mahomes’ first postseason, he scored 31 second-half points against Bill Belichick. New England has only allowed 31 points five times in 41 playoffs games during the Belichick era. Mahomes did it in a single half during his first season as a starter. They lost because of an offsides penalty and a coin flip.
Last year, the Chiefs erased three double-digit deficits en route to a Super Bowl win. They trailed 24-0 in the first half against Houston — Mahomes erased it by halftime. The Chiefs won by twenty. They trailed the Titans in the AFC Championship by ten points, took the lead by halftime and won by eleven. In the Super Bowl, Kansas City trailed by ten entering the fourth quarter. They scored 21 unanswered points to seal the first of many Super Bowl titles in the Mahomes era.
I grew up a baseball fan and wasn’t even five years old when LeBron was drafted. Narrowly missing out on witnessing LeBron’s teens and early-20’s used to bring me immense sorrow.
I don’t feel quite that way anymore. Patrick Mahomes is the LeBron James of my generation. His ascension was not as ubiquitous and seemingly predetermined, but make no mistake: Mahomes’ rise was just as certain. I wrote about his inevitability before the Super Bowl and it only grows more true by the week.
I’m not here to flesh out the differences between young LeBron and Mahomes. My goal is not to persuade. You are either already in full agreement or you’re not.
I am here to tell you that Mahomes is already the greatest football player of all-time. That sounds hyperbolic, but it’s not. Obviously the career accolades aren’t complete yet — he’s barely 25 years old and in his third year as a starter. Yet, he’s already won an MVP, Super Bowl MVP and a Super Bowl ring in just two seasons of playing professional football. He’ll earn the rest of the accomplishments in due time, including a second MVP in just a few weeks.
Mahomes is on the same trajectory as young LeBron. When we look back at his career in fifteen years and wonder when the exact moment was when Mahomes became the G.O.A.T., I’m telling you that moment is right here, right now.
It’s every week he plays in the most QB-friendly era in NFL history and is the only quarterback who never plays a bad game. It’s every time he’s on the road, facing a deficit with 90 seconds left and the Chiefs are still live betting favorites because every single human with a pulse knows he’s scoring a touchdown.
It’s why the Chiefs handed him a record-shattering half a billion dollars. Mahomes turning around and using some of that money to allow the Chiefs’ stadium to be used as a polling place for the 2020 election is just more evidence he’s following in LeBron’s footsteps.
Patrick Mahomes is the greatest football player of all-time. The sooner you accept that, the better.