Last summer, NLL.com posted an article chronicling the similarities that exist when comparing the abilities of the planet’s foremost box lacrosse players with that of their contemporaries from the world of professional basketball. While the parallels between the box game and ice hockey are abundant and more obvious, the existence of a shot clock, set plays, screens and post-ups marries lax and hoops in a manner quite unique when assessing the lexicon of sporting pursuits.
With the above feature serving as the launching point, the hot and humid blissfulness of the current summer months allows for yet another crossover glimpse, likening NLL players this time with ancillary athletic talents inside a mutual market. This effort will compare current-day lacrosse titans with those in which they may share resemblances in areas such as style of play, a commonality in background, and/or prominence within their respective teams and leagues.
In Buffalo, Dhane Smith and Josh Allen are two sides of the same unstoppable coin. Smith, the Bandits’ 6’3”, 207-pound offensive juggernaut, can split a defense with a pinpoint feed or bulldoze straight through it. Allen, the Bills’ 6’5”, 237-pound quarterback, can drop a 50-yard dime or truck a linebacker for six.
Smith’s two MVPs and single-season scoring records echo Allen’s MVP season, 28.5 passing TDs per year pace, and record-tying 15 rushing touchdowns in 2024. Both are too versatile for opponents to scheme away, too physical to slow down, and too competitive to quit. Whether it’s the turf of KeyBank Center or the grass of Highmark Stadium, Buffalo fans know the feeling—when either one takes control, resistance is futile.
While both Smith and Allen have brought sustained success to their respective franchises, only Smith has delivered the championships and ticker-tape parades. That may soon change, as Allen has the Bills off to a 4-0 start in pursuit of Buffalo’s first Lombardi Trophy and a parade that would see him stand beside Dhane Smith in the city’s championship lore.
Despite the NLL legend holding a six-year advantage when it comes to collective time on Earth, this gathering of high-volume scoreboard adjusters parlayed superior college careers into immensely prosperous professional tenures, set amongst the backdrop of the economic and cultural center of the American South.
Both players became household names during their collegiate careers. Thompson, who so proudly represents Upstate New York’s Onondaga Reservation, was a two-time recipient of the Tewaaraton Award, amid a historic NCAA run at the University of Albany. Young was an unabashed superstar at the University of Oklahoma, leading college basketball in both points and assists during the 2018 season.
At the pro-level, Lyle Thompson and Trae Young have proven themselves to be more than just floor generals—they bend the game to their will. Thompson glides across the box floor, turning scraps of space into 40-goal seasons and 50-assist campaigns. Young’s wizardry with the ball creates space and fuels elite production for the Hawks. In 2025, the Atlanta guard led the NBA in assists while pouring in 24 points per game.
Both are artists as much as athletes—shifty, deceptive, and utterly unpredictable. Thompson’s stick and Young’s handle are extensions of their vision, each capable of freezing defenders with a feint before delivering the perfect strike.
Few cities can boast two stars as dominant in their sports as Toronto does with Tom Schreiber and Auston Matthews. Schreiber, “Captain America,” orchestrates the Rock’s offense with surgical precision and steady poise, piling up 30-plus goal seasons while setting the tone in the locker room. Matthews, the Leafs’ sharpshooting captain, has turned 40-goal seasons into routine.
The Rock forward grew up on Long Island, New York, before matriculating at Princeton University, in the neighboring state of New Jersey. During three of his years at the Ivy League institution, he earned All-America honors. The 2017 Rookie of the Year has lived up to the billing in Canada’s largest city, operating as a locker-room leader, along with scoring more than 33 goals in three of his eight parades through the NLL orbit.
The Maple Leaf star took the city by storm in the wake of being selected with the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. Matthews was born in the San Francisco Bay Area before relocating with his family to Scottsdale, Arizona. The former junior hockey legend enters his 10th NHL season owning an enviable career statsheet that denotes 40-plus goals during six of his journeys around the sun, with his apex appearing in 2023-2024, when the center found the back of the net a whopping 69 times.
Both are clinical, relentless finishers who draw the defensive spotlight every night and still deliver. Their presence changes the geometry of the game. Matthews buries pucks from impossible angles; Schreiber threads passes into windows no one else sees. For Toronto fans, their dominance is as familiar as the skyline.
What the Wings’ prolific scorer and the Phillies’ muscle-bound slugger have in common is simple: productivity—and plenty of it.
Joe Resetarits just finished a 122-point season, tying for third in the league. The Hamburg, New York product has eclipsed the 100-point mark on four occasions and has established himself as the most prolific American-born scorer in NLL history.
Immediately adjacent to Xifinity Mobile Arena, the home of the Wings, sits Citizens Bank Park, the place of business of lefty power hitter Kyle Schwarber. The 32-year-old masher of baseballs owns an astonishing 2025 regular season resume of 56 home runs and 132 RBI for a Phillies team that ran away with the National League East crown. In his career, ‘Schwar-boombs’ has hit more than 30 HR seven times, while surpassing the 40 HR strata during three separate campaigns.
Both thrive on big moments, unafraid to take the game-changing swing—or shot. Resetarits can erase a deficit in seconds; Schwarber can send a crowd into frenzy with a single blast. In South Philly, the formula is the same: when these two are on the field, Philadelphia wins.
