LeBron James is the personification of how fast time flies and how slow its passage can feel. The Los Angeles Lakers star is in his 21st season, and yet here he is, barely suffering any drop-offs to his production. He remains one of the top-10, top-15 best players in the association, which is a marvelous feat for someone who’ll be turning 40 in 11 months.
Just to put in perspective how incredible James’ longevity is, during ESPN’s broadcast of the Lakers’ 127-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night, they showed a graphic that stated that The King has played against 35 percent of all players in NBA history.
Even LeBron James couldn’t believe that statistic, as seen in his reaction to the graphic in the aftermath of the Lakers’ big win over the Mavericks on national TV.
“Man WHAT!!!!! That’s insane
,” James wrote as the caption on his official Instagram story.
By 2020, StatHead has put the total number of players who have played at least one game in the NBA at around 4,500. Four seasons have passed since, so that number should now be closer to around 4,800. 35 percent of that amounts to about 1,680 players. It is quite remarkable that LeBron James has shared an NBA court with that many players — a testament to his incredible longevity that has allowed him to keep pace with the best players in the league even as he’s aged.
That is the craziest part of the equation whenever James’ legacy is discussed. For most players with incredible longevity, there was a clear point of decline. For example, Vince Carter, who, by the time he retired, played with or against around 37 percent of players in the entire history of the league, had to accept a smaller role since he started to decline at the start of the 2010s. But for the Lakers star, he continues to be a bona fide superstar.
During the Lakers’ Wednesday night win against the Mavericks, James put up 25 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists — a stat line that one would expect to see from him in 2015, not in 2024. Now that he’s still playing at a high level, that 35 percent figure should only rise, especially with Bronny James set to make the jump to the NBA soon.