playing career going to last? The vast majority of top player drafted in his class and even a few classes after are either retired or looking past their prime. LeBron is still pretty much in peak form. Isn't this level of longevity of elite level play completely unprecedented? Can we imagine a 40-year-old LeBron still being the best player in the NBA or a top 5 or 10 player still?
Well as long as he's resting regular season games, & forming alliances with other superstars (while playing in a terrible conference) he'll be playing awhile
Bill Simmons was joking that he was gonna play long enough for his son to go one and done at Ohio state or wherever and then join him on the Cavs or wherever. Can you imagine old man Lebron being on the same team as his 19 year old son?
I'd expect another 2-3 years of him being a top 5 player. I'm amazed that he can still physically do the things he does. Usually at his age players start to rely more on their experience to outperform players who are physically superior to them.
He will probably age well like Karl Malone. Barring any freak injury, he's going to be the the Kareem/KMalone of non big men. Extreme longevity and record holder in all sorts of stats, and i wouldn't put it past him to join up with young superstars in his 35-38 years old seasons to keep chasing more rings. I honestly don't doubt that he will hold every record and even have more rings than Jordan when it's said and done. It's just the manner of which he had to do it and how much longer it took him to do it is what i personally hold against him. He's locked in to #2 at best no matter what he does the next 8 years. He's already had a longer career than Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and he only has the same amount of rings as Larry Bird and yet people already calling him GOAT or arguing his place as GOAT "when its all said and done." I do think with his freakish build and health, and with the NBA being soft small ball, he can easily transition to PF in his mid 30s and keep dominating a bunch of soft ass 3 pt shooting "bigs."
Then again, anything could happen. Look at Kobe. Everything i said about LeBron above...i said the same about Kobe..that he was going to be the Kareem of guards. All signs were pointing to Kobe going well into his early 40s and still balling, but eventually the body breaks. LeBron just like Kobe has been playing since his teens. Karl Malone and Kareem came in after what? 3-4 years of college?
I swear the guy is superhuman, I've seen him turn that ankle twice in the playoffs and he just walks around, shakes it off and never leaves the game. Most others go to the locker room and get treatment, miss the rest of the game or are out for the remainder of the season. I don't see him slowing down yet. Maybe at 35 and older his athleticism starts to decline but there's no sign of it yet.
not 1, not 2, not , not 3, not 4, not 5, 6 more years of greatness for LBJ Everyone is coming West because they fear Lebron in the East.
