There are those who age like fine wine; and then there’s him, who if the 2027 Draft could be presented, would still be a lottery pick.
LeBron James will turn 42 exactly in two months and is embarked on what is his 24th season in the NBA. An absolute record. No one had reached twenty-four. Not twenty-three. And those who got to twenty-two (Vince Carter) or twenty-one (Garnett, Nowitzki, Parish, Paul, Willis) did so mostly when they were already near retirement. To put it in perspective, of these six, the player who averaged the most points in his final season before hanging up his sneakers was Dirk Nowitzki, with 7.3 points per game.
LeBron is also experiencing a decline in his numbers: as a professional, he has never finished a regular season averaging below twenty points per game; currently he is on track to do so, as in five games with the Philadelphia 76ers he’s at 16.4 and with the worst eFG% since his rookie year, at 48.6%.
Furthermore, he’s failing to salvage the other two major boxes: he does not reach double digits in rebounds or assists.
Overall, we have a James who, with his new jersey, is averaging for the moment 16.4 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 1.6 steals and 1 block… a dead man as alive and kicking as Captain Barbosa. And last Friday, to abandon irony, the old king tipped his crown to deliver us his best performance to date since arriving in Pennsylvania.
Unafraid of his age, he unleashed a game in the pure style of his best days against the Knicks, the current NBA champions.
For 33 minutes – the minutes he logs in at the start of the season – he unveiled a full repertoire of his still-astonishing athletic power: he blew by Hart to finish with a layup, posted up with force on Mikal Bridges to draw the 2+1, and also stepped up defensively to shut the rim on OG Anunoby with a superb block.
After the Sixers let a 14-point lead slip in the final quarter, it was James — on Tyrese Maxey’s miss — who sealed the win against the knickerbockers.
The Forward-Center Is Just a Label
Just check Basketball-Reference to confirm that the Akron native has played every role in the NBA, occupying all five positions with unrivaled success. In his rookie year, with endless youth, he mostly played as a guard, but from the following year he moved to the one that would become his fetishized pedestal for more than a decade: the wing. In between, he spent two seasons operating as an unofficial ‘4’ because there was Chris Bosh in Miami whom they couldn’t trap under the glass. And he even had his early stints at the ‘5’, a position that, with time and mileage, he has become increasingly comfortable with by bulking up and using his body with the efficiency earned by two decades of veteran wear.
In Philly, his starting role will depend greatly on when Joel Embiid is available and when not. If the Cameroonian is on the floor, his most habitual position will be the forward-center, hovering between the wing and the restricted area in moments of need.
Starting at point guard — resources he has in abundance and applies, in fact, in several stretches of the game — will not be necessary, as it was during that 2020-21 season with Lakers, starved of a point guard.
But in these 76ers he is surplus to requirements, because in Tyrese Maxey he has LeBron — I dare say — one of the most exceptional point guards he has ever played with in the NBA, aside from Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. In fact, among the seven assists James distributed against the Knicks, several were less finishing passes and more ordinary setups seven meters from the rim under the banner “Maxey, you do it.”
Between him and Jaylen Brown, there’s no doubt that at this moment it is the Texan who is steering the ship and bearing the load of the starting lineup. LeBron, at 42, relegated to a luxury sidekick role and comfortable near the triple-double.
“He has been delivering,” commented coach Nick Nurse after the victory over the Knicks in a game that opened his NBA Cup. “But this, without a doubt, has been his best game.”
If we talk about records, there aren’t many statistical milestones left for James to reach, so we’ll have to settle for this last one: tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the fifth oldest player in NBA history to post a game with at least 20 points.
However, conquering a fifth NBA championship with his fourth team — after having won rings with Miami, Cleveland and the Lakers — would indeed be a feat worthy of a place in the record books.
A Fantastic First Month
The Sixers opened the season 6-1 — leading the Eastern Conference — even though their starting five has shared the floor together on only three occasions this season.
Additionally, they already own a 2-0 mark against the Knicks, the current title defenders, after beating them in New York on the season opener.
James signed with the Sixers as a free agent largely to enjoy himself, to play with close friends — like Maxey — and to keep competing at the highest level on a roster with top aspirations. After the first month of the season, you could say James is succeeding on all those fronts.
“I’m having a great time,” the Ohio-born star explains. “I love what we bring each night. I adore our competitive spirit; everyone comes ready to work and gives their best. Plus, it’s a very fun group. To be honest, I feel like a big kid! It’s a pleasure to be with these guys, and I’m extremely glad I decided to come here.”
I’ve been part of some of the most important games in the history of this sport. Being able to calm the team in the closing moments is simply the result of my experience. Whether the ball is in my hands or not, my job is to position my teammates correctly and guide them throughout the game.
