GM: In NFL, LeBron James Would Have Been ‘Rob Gronkowski Before Rob Gronkowski’

The general manager doesn’t mince words: “LeBron James would have been the best tight end of all time. He would have been Rob Gronkowski before Rob Gronkowski. No one would be able to cover him. He would have set records every season.” 

This is not a crazy concept. Mark Murphy, who played safety for the Green Bay Packers for more than a decade, told ESPN.com’s Tim Graham in 2009, “I tell people that I rate my top receivers—coaching, playing or watching—as James Lofton, Jerry Rice, Steve Largent and LeBron James.”

Murphy was the defensive coordinator at James’ high school in Akron, Ohio, and he watched as James became an all-state receiver his sophomore and junior years.

“People laugh at me, but it’s true,” he said when elaborating on putting James in the same sentence as three of the best wideouts of all time. “The kid had everything you could want. I felt like that was one kid that could have gone from high school to the NFL and played.”

Murphy isn’t alone in that belief. Not even close.

As James plays in his sixth consecutive NBA Finals and continues to shape his legacy as one of the best players of all time, I wanted to look back at what might have been. What if James had decided to play football instead of basketball?

When speaking to people around football about this alternate universe, the consensus is that James would have been a star. His body would have adapted to the rigors of football, and he would have been one of the revolutionary figures at either wide receiver or, more likely, tight end.

Now, that is quite a mouthful and will certainly set off the legion of James haters, who seem genetically predisposed to detect anything positive that’s written about James and react to it as if …

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