The NBA Superstar Hollywood Superstar Comparisons

The 98th annual Academy Awards are taking place this Sunday.

In the world of athletes, the NBA superstar is arguably the closest thing we have to Hollywood A-list cinema actors.

Football may be the biggest, but they wear the helmets and play with 10 other guys for a split second.

Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

Basketball and the individuality that comes with leading a team, having a unique style of play, and now the capabilities we have with feeling like we know who they are more than ever, is like watching a red carpet each night on the court.

The arc of a movie star and that of the current NBA superstars run parallel.

Let’s take a look at the state of the faces of the league and give them a Hollywood comparison.

Victor Wembanyama // Timothee Chalamet

Wembanyama and Chalamet are the stars campaigning as hard as possible to be THE next one. The Lisan Al-Ghaib, for comparison, to Chalamet in Dune. They’re young, it feels like there’s no ceiling in what they can and can’t do, given that Chalamet, one moment, is Willy Wonka and the next a ping pong player, and Wembanyama is a 7-footer that can hit 3’s.

Still, the outward “I would like to be the best to ever do it” that they both put on while simultaneously making it feel like it’s possible is what we’re seeing in real-time.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander // Ryan Gosling

Both feel like they’re at the top of their craft, with Gosling being a jack of all trades in comedic, romantic, and action roles, and Shai has already done it as the reigning MVP while winning a championship. They just kind of can do whatever they want now, Gosling picking fun roles in Barbie and SGA wearing fur coats on a warm day in March because he likes fashion.

You also get the envy in that Shai gets every foul call that makes people think he’s a free-throw merchant, and the male audience envies the good looks of the Gos.

Nikola Jokic // Harrison Ford

Elite talents that simply don’t want to be there anymore and would rather be doing their hobbies. No one has ever looked more miserable than Nikola Jokic putting up 45/15/10 because he’d rather be with his horses.

Harrison Ford just wants to do some Shrinking episodes, fly his planes, and forget about Han Solo forever.

Anthony Edwards // Glen Powell

Due to the surplus of international superstars taking over the league, the conversation has transitioned from the best player to the face of the league to the best AMERICAN face of the league, and we all want so badly to anoint that guy as charismatic and exciting as Anthony Edwards to be that man.

The issue is that he’s done and said some controversial things, and has only gotten to a conference finals, but he’s been given the “next up” tag. We did the same thing when Glen Powell was as electric next to Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick and did a Twisters reboot as the next big American star, but we’re still kind of waiting.

Luka Doncic // Tom Holland

All of the promise from the very beginning in youth, Luka taking the Mavs to the Finals, and Tom Holland being a beloved Spider-Man and face of Marvel, but in a depressing identity crisis? Luka had the devastating trade and is trying to get back a love for basketball in a winning situation that just looks sad.

Holland has only put up duds away from Spider-Man and teamed up with Christopher Nolan for The Odyssey to fix the non-Spidey career.

Giannis Antetokounmpo // Miles Teller

Youthful stars that put up a championship from the very beginning, Teller’s being Whiplash, and Giannis’s adorable humble beginnings, but now it’s sort of gotten weird, where Giannis is now a passive-aggressive villain that wants to leave, and Miles Teller is just not as cool as Glen Powell, according to Tom Cruise.

Kawhi Leonard // Joaquin Phoenix

All of the elite talent in the world is only sort of a weirdo when not performing and endorsing things.

For Kawhi, it’s trees; for Phoenix, it’s milk.

Stephen Curry // Leonardo DiCaprio

The face who has done it all already at this current stage of their career, to the point where everyone respects them and wants to work with them.

Appointment television, no matter what.

Jalen Brunson // Pedro Pascal

Brunson was an undersized beloved icon from the very beginning, but is now getting some overexposure with the foul-baiting seen on nationally-televised games.

Pascal has played so many beloved characters from Game of Thrones to The Mandalorian to The Last of Us and Fantastic Four, where he was just cast in too many things at once, and some turned on a guy we like!

Tyrese Maxey // Jesse Plemons

Any time you see Jesse Plemons in a role, he’s bringing psychotic and chaotic energy that you’re all the way locked into.

Maxey is the same way on a fast break, going as joyously fast as he can, and is now the face of the Sixers rather than the setup man like Plemons was in Friday Night Lights.

LeBron James // Denzel Washington

Still the A-lister that everyone will watch, no matter how interested or uninterested he may be, and is a living, breathing legend that can turn it on when he wants to.

Cade Cunningham // Jacob Elordi

Both are massive human beings with all of the tools to be a massive star in an understated way, and have interesting career paths that shouldn’t have worked. A softspoken #1 pick from a losing Oklahoma State team for Cade usually means bust, and he was as advertised and more.

Jacob Elordi, from teen hunk movies to a Frankenstein role, nominated for best picture, should not have worked.

Jaylen Brown // Josh O’Connor

A superstar just came on the scene when we allowed it to happen; for Brown, it was when he took over the team while Tatum was injured and became the Batman, leading them as the 2nd overall seed in the East. O’Connor and Mike Faist both had dueling roles in Challengers, and he’s done nothing but put up first-billed superstardom ever since.

Kevin Durant // Ben Affleck

Very talented with… let’s call them controversial relationships!