Exactly. While each elite european league contains maximum two favourites, NBA championship can be taken by Miami, OKC, Indiana, SAS, Chicago or Houston. That's 6 teams out of 30. If you add fringe contenders like Nets, Golden state, Memphis and Clippers, you arrive at 1/3 of the league.
Actually, football players are freakishly athletic. Those "fat" linemen need extremely good footwork and relative speed to be successful. In the McGrady and football thread, it has been pointed out how fast those receivers and DBs are. Very few basketball players have the physical abilities to make it to the NFL, either not big enough or fast enough. Basketball players are more "athletic" in the sense that they have better body control. Football players are bigger and faster than most other sports.
I think basketball/soccer players are better conditioned than football players. I think also basketball/soccer players are better skilled. Other than QB, Football players might be the least skilled when it comes to compared to other major team sports. You have guys that start playing football in college and can still become stars because it's a lot more based on how strong and fast you are than anything else.
