New England Patriots Closely Resemble This NBA Champion
By Erik Lambert
The New England Patriots were busy getting the rings from their Super Bowl victory back in January. Still, some of them no doubt caught the NBA Finals.
It must’ve been satisfying for most of them watching the Golden State Warriors take down LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Especially after watching that team crush the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. In such a heated basketball atmosphere, it gets one thinking. If the Patriots themselves were similar to any prior NBA championship team, who would they be.
It’s actually a tougher question than people realize. So many factors go into it from styles to players involved and so forth. After some careful consideration though, it’s pretty clear who New England resembles. That being the 1987 Los Angeles Lakers.
There are many reasons for this comparison. Most notably how they were led by a seemingly ageless future Hall of Famer who continued to defy expectations. For the Lakers it was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who was 39 that year. For the Patriots it’s Tom Brady, who was also 39. Both teams were best known for their precise and seemingly unstoppable offenses that loved to keep the pressure on opponents. Chip away, chip away and chip away until they break.
Yet at the same time both teams feature highly underrated defenses. The Patriots finished 2016 ranked 1st in points allowed. Los Angeles rated 7th in defense that season. To top it off both teams were relatively young. With the exception of Jabbar and Brady, the rosters were made up of players under 30. Magic Johnson and James Worth were 27 and 25 respectively. Super Bowl heroes James White and Trey Flowers were 24 and 23.
That perhaps was the scariest part. Knowing those teams had just won the championship and were plenty loaded for another run. Los Angeles would go back-to-back in 1988. All signs point to the Patriots doing the same in 2017. In that context it’s pretty unreal how similar they actually are.