The parallels between Tom Brady and LeBron James run deep as the two travel long, difficult paths to GOAT status

On Sunday night, before even claiming his seventh Super Bowl victory in an emphatic win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Tom Brady did what all true GOATs have to do by branding himself as the greatest of their sports. respective: it redefined the very way we calculate the greatness of all time.

And in doing so, Brady hasn’t just solidified his own position as the NFL’s greatest quarterback. It also opened up another path for LeBron James to travel in his own path to end his career, in his own sport, as the best of all time.

That’s because Brady’s superb run didn’t just last for 20 years, two teams, 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven Super Bowl wins. It also erased the notion, conceived by GOAT Joe Montana now surpassed and possibly surpassed GOAT Michael Jordan, that perfection is required for this mountaintop status.

Yes, Brady’s Seven Rings are an absolute nonsense, and they alone do its trick. But if he had lost Sunday night – had he, in another friendly Kansas City universe, seen Patrick Mahomes claim a victory – how could you still doubt Brady’s Greatest Of All Time cover?

His streak of 10 Super Bowl appearances and how he defined two decades of soccer domination is enough. There is no longer a legitimate argument that losing three Super Bowls taints him. They do the opposite – they are reminiscent of the very brutal difficulty of arriving in these games, and the rare genius that goes on and on and on. There’s no case that losing to inferior competition – we’re talking about you, Eli Manning and Nick Foles – somehow lessens Brady’s star. His brilliance alone, at least in his sport.

Brady, like true greats of all time, shattered Joe Montana’s tale of perfection and his Super Bowl 4 in 4 record set two decades ago. In doing so, he also recalibrated the way fans, including those outside of football, view the ratings we make over time that put one all-time player ahead of another.

The parallels here between Brady and LeBron run deep. Both had to pass, in reality and in the minds of all of us who together form the sports zeitgeist, a GOAT that had never failed in the Big One.

Montana was perfect in his Super Bowls. Jordan was 6-for-6 in his NBA Finals appearances, a mark of perfection often touted as the reason LeBron can never get past him. The notion is false, but deeply rooted.

Brady and LeBron also had to fight the natural nostalgia of one generation not wanting to release the next a new star who surpassed their own. Each made 10 appearances – and count – in a Super Bowl and NBA Finals, respectively. Brady just finished another at 43. LeBron is very, very likely to win another championship this summer at 36.

Each also breeds a deep hatred from many fans in their respective sports, the kind that can blind us to reality and leave us looking for an excuse not to grant those we hate the status they still deserve.

We could spend hundreds of thousands of words dissecting the tactical brilliance of the two players. But each has also forged a new requirement for GOAT status, something that cannot be measured by an individual game, season or championship moment: sustainability.

Every player has kept their palate at the top of the game, regardless of their coach, organization, mental fatigue or the young guns that stand around them. Brady was on full display on Sunday night, with the entire sports world focusing solely on him. But his moment echoed LeBron’s low-key and similar situation a few days ago, when Draymond Green spoke out for all of us – regarding the two GOATs – when he tweeted, “Yo why (he) s’ still improves … How? “

Brady surpassed Montana with few legitimate arguments. LeBron has yet to do the same with Jordan. But, again, Brady’s example of sustainability and the mental toughness it takes to stay at this level for so long makes a compelling case for LeBron.

The idea of ​​perfection for our GOATs has always been a lie. Brady’s mental tenacity is the sport’s most blatant rebuttal.

This is because we now know from Jordan himself in “The Last Dance” that he just couldn’t take the mental toll of what it took to win and become obsessed with winning year after year. year. He needed a break. He needed a retreat. Then he needed another retreat. He was tired. It’s OK.

But it is not perfection. It’s a natural shortcoming of even the most amazing stars in a different, more storytelling friendly form. It is, on closer inspection, its own kind of defeat. It takes some courage to carry on, as Brady did, nearly a decade without a ring – then to push that fact forward, through his old age, and gain several more. Much like, with LeBron James, it wasn’t a mark against him that he lost in the final. Unlike Jordan, he stayed for the fight.

If LeBron and the Lakers do what Brady and the Bucs did last night this season, the King will have five championships in 11 playoff games. And with what Brady has created – a world where GOATs play beyond the limits of what was once possible, and where Championship failure isn’t final in a man’s legacy – it’s impossible. to say where his own story will end.