During the time when LeBron James was warming up for a game that he was playing versus San Antonio, he started making jokes about his longevity.
Taking a shot, he declared, “I’m going to play until I’m forty years old.” After that, I’m going to switch to playing left-handed until I’m 45 years old. With my left hand, I am going to record a score of 5,000 points. Then I will be finished.”
James was wearing a grin. What he said was just absurd. But it is not completely out of the question to believe that he could achieve those things if he so desired.
In the midst of his 21st season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), James is celebrating his 39th birthday on Saturday. At the same time, he is engaging in activities that are entirely unusual for someone at this level of his career.
In addition to averaging 25.4 points per game, he is shooting 53.9 percent from the field and a career-high 41.3 percent from outside the arc. Additionally, he is grabbing 7.8 rebounds and dishing out 7.3 assists per game. No player has ever finished their 21st season with a point average that was higher than 7.4 points. In addition to this, he already holds the record for the most points averaged by a player in their 18th, 19th, and 20th seasons of professional basketball.
He is the oldest player in the league. He is also the first player to hold that status and be in the top 10 for preseason MVP odds. He is now the oldest player in the league.
Two-time Most Valuable Player of the NBA Giannis Antetokounmpo feels that there is no competition for the title of greatest player of all time, despite the fact that fans and experts will continue to аrgue over who is the best player of all time.
“I sаy [LeBron] is No. 1,” the standout player for the Milwaukee Bucks stated earlier in the season. Furthermore, he is still continuing. He is not slowing down at all.
In the National Basketball Association (NBA), he serves as a model for all of the athletes to emulate. Twenty-one years of being healthy, good, and consistent. He’s fantastic. He’s been to the NBA Finals ten times. The blueprint that I am going to attempt to follow, or at least try to imitate, is that. I hope that when I am 39 years old, I will still be able to play, and the next guy will talk about me.
At the moment, James holds the record for being the oldest player in the National Basketball Association. It is quite remarkable that he has been able to compete against nine dads and their sons over the course of his long and extensive career. An average NBA player is 26 years old, which is closer in age to James’ son Bronny, who is 19 years old, than it is to James himself.
However, James has not achieved this kind of longevity as a bench ornament or as a seasoned veteran whose job it is to provide guidance to the younger players. In contrast, James continues to be the best player on the court on a number of occasions.
James now owns the record for the most games, 89, in which he scored 30 points after turning 35. He broke the record for the oldest player to score 30 points in seven consecutive games during the previous season. In February of this year, he also became the all-time best scorer in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Furthermore, he is now on track to Һit 40,000 career points, a total that was thought to be unachievable for a very long time.
The previous week, James led the team to victory over Oklahoma City by scoring forty points, grabbing seven rebounds, and dishing out seven assists. He also shot 65 percent from the field and made five of five shots from beyond the arc.
Because what he is doing is so mind-bogglingly astounding while at the same time being so normal for him, some of the most prominent players in the league believe that it will take some time for the magnitude of what he is doing to fully register.
“When you think about him being a teenager, and now he’s close to 40 – and he’s been at the top of his game since,” said Damian Lillard, a great player for the Bucks. “…I think people will look back at that body of work over 20 years, or however long it’s been, and when it’s over with, I think they’ll have more respect for it.”
The majority of the league’s superstars were brought up to look up to James. Furthermore, he continues to serve as their yardstick up to this day.
Victor Wembanyama, a sensational rookie for the Spurs, had not even been born when LeBron James was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers, his hometown team, with the first overall choice in the NBA in 2003. Twenty years later, when Wembanyama was 19 years old and getting ready to enter the league, he stated on the podcast “The Old Man & The Three” that he was most looking forward to playing on the same court as James, but that “to play against LeBron is going to feel so weird.”
A number of the league’s more seasoned elite players recall having similar feelings.
“He’s like a barometer,” Kevin Durant, a star player for the Phoenix Suns, exclaimed. “Take a look at his box scores after a number of my games I’ve played throughout my entire career. What he did is clear to you. Beginning when I was in high school, I have been watching highlights.
It is not a coincidence that James is achieving the things he is reaching at this age.
Ever since he was a senior in high school, he has been iced after games. Every night, he makes it a point to get at least twelve hours of sleep. He is a meditator. When he arrives in a city, he will immediately begin all of his activation exercises, regardless of the time of day. He pays attention to both the game and his rivals. To stay one step ahead of the competition, he is continuously adjusting his play.
There is also the fact that he goes into each season with the intention of proving something to himself. Furthermore, it is evident that he has actively embraced the idea that he is past his prime as a means of boosting his motivation.
The hashtag “WashedKing” is one that he frequently uses whenever he reposts his statistics or videos on social media. This practice dates back to the previous few seasons. He has already made an appearance in advertisements for Nike, in which he competes against Father Time in a one-on-one match and, of course, emerges victorious.
In addition, let us not forget what took place during the previous postseason, when Dillon Brooks, a former opponent of the Memphis Grizzlies, referred to James as “old” and stated that he would only respect him if he scored forty points against him. James’s response was a performance in Game 4 of that series in which he scored 22 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, making him the oldest player to ever achieve those numbers.
It is possible that James is an old basketball player. However, when questioned if he is aware of his age, he did not show any hesitation.
“I don’t,” he informed me. “In all honesty, I don’t. The only thing I’m going to do is go out there and play basketball for free of charge. On the basketball court, I have the impression that there is nothing that I am unable to do that I was able to do when I was in my 20s.
“So, I’m going to keep working toward becoming the best possible triple threаt, which means I’m going to attempt to score in the low post, score in the paint, score in the midrange, score threes, and get to the free throw line whenever I can. Continually making an effort to keep the defense at bay. In addition, I am always able to recover from a missed shot and locate my teammates.
Even while James hasn’t actually displayed any outward signs of physical degeneration, it is common knowledge that what we are witnessing is fleeting. It is comparable to a meteor shower that gets brighter and brighter before suԀԀenly fading.
During the previous season, there were numerous occasions when James would sit in the locker room and discuss the rigorous travel schedule that he had to endure. And after the Los Angeles Lakers were defeated by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals, he gave the impression that he was contemplating retirement by declaring, “I’ve got a lot to think about.”
However, he has stated for a long time that he would like to continue playing in the NBA for a sufficient amount of time to become the first player to play alongside his son. It is therefore possible that the basketball community will be fortunate enough to be able to see his magnificence for at least one more season. As of right now, Bronny is a freshman at the University of Southern California, and he might become eligible for the NBA Draft this summer.
During this interim period, it is as if one is witnessing the defiance of the natural rules that govern the universe.
Since he was a young man, he has been the emblematic representative of the league. In spite of the fact that it has become more wrinkled and grayed over the course of twenty years, that face continues to be the focal point of the basketball universe.