Donovan McNabb had a successful league in the NFL playing quarterback. He was one of the best quarterbacks during his time in the league. McNabb spent 13 seasons in the NFL spending the majority of his time playing with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Before McNabb went on to the NFL, he was a two-sport athlete at Syracuse, where he played on the football and basketball team. McNabb talked about how he would have preferred the NBA if he had the same success in the NFL.

McNabb’s success in the NFL

McNabb had a lot of success when he first came into the league and started playing for the Eagles. He was the team’s starting quarterback from 1999 to 2009. He led the team to eight playoff appearances, five NFC East division championships, five NFC Championship games, and a Super Bowl appearance. Looking at those accomplishments, McNabb was talented at the quarterback position and knew how to lead his team to victory.

Though he never won a Super Bowl with the Eagles, they were one of the top teams in the NFC for numerous years. McNabb became the Eagles’ all-time leader in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. He was the face of the Eagles and was the talk of the town in Philadelphia.

McNabb would go on to play for two more teams during his career. He spent one season with the Washington Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings. Though he faced some injuries at the tail end of his time with the Eagles, he still found success towards the end of his career.

The Illinois native was the fourth quarterback in NFL history to gain more than 30,000 passing yards, 200 touchdown passes, 3,000 rushing yards, and 20 rushing touchdowns. Those are some impressive numbers that McNabb put up during his career and lets you see how successful he was.

McNabb playing basketball at Syracuse

Not only was McNabb talented on the field, but he was skilled on the basketball court as well. In high school, he was teammates with former NBA star Antoine Walker. McNabb enjoyed an impressive football career at Syracuse. While at Syracuse, he decided to walk-on to the men’s basketball team.

He played on the basketball team for two seasons under coach Jim Boeheim. McNabb primarily played a reserve role on the school’s nationally rank basketball team. He also was a member of the 1996 team that made it to the National Championship game and ended up losing to Kentucky.

In an interview with TMZ, McNabb talked about the possibility of pursuing a career in the NBA. With the amount of success that he had in the NFL, he believed that if that success translated to basketball, he would have pursued an NBA career.

What if McNabb pursued an NBA career?

Though McNabb did not see much playing time playing basketball in college, he still had enough talent to even play at a top basketball school. It’s not easy playing two sports in college, especially at a school like Syracuse. But McNabb made it work, and he had a lot of knowledge about the game of basketball.

Things might have been different for McNabb if he had success playing basketball at Syracuse. He would have had to make a tough decision on which sport to pursue. But everything worked out for McNabb because he became one of the best quarterbacks to play the game of football.