The 39-year-old Lakers star LeBron James is nearing the end of a legendary career, but he doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon. Last season alone, the LA star averaged 25.7 points, 8.3 assists, and 7.3 rebounds in 71 games. Still, ahead of Year 22, even LeBron James can get speechless when faced with his own career accomplishments.
For instance, Bleacher Report shared a staggering King James statistic on X, formerly Twitter. The post read, “LeBron has more 50-point games than single-digit games in his career (regular season).” To be specific, James scored below ten points for only ten games, while he has 14 50-point games. In fact, he has scored at least 10 points for 1,209 consecutive games, a streak beginning in 2007.
In response, the King quoted Bleacher Report’s original post and simply replied with about a dozen emojis.
LeBron James in Year 22
The four-time NBA champion LeBron James is also the league’s all-time leading scorer. With 40,474–and counting–total points, James has cleared Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s old record, which everyone once thought was unbeatable. Moreover, he is one of only a handful of players to reach eight consecutive NBA Finals, and he is the only player to lead both Finals teams in all five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.
James, together with Kyrie Irving, also led perhaps the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. Of the 33 teams that went down 1-3 in the Finals, LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit to shock the Golden State Warriors and win the 2016 championship. Even more impressive was that the Warriors had come off a historic 73-9 season, the all-time NBA record.
Most recently, the King also won Olympics MVP after Team USA’s victorious gold medal campaign in the 2024 Paris games. Besides his longevity, LeBron James’ sheer production at 39 means he could still play for a fifth NBA championship, even while playing with his son Bronny, whom the Lakers drafted in 2024.
Can the Lakers still contend?
Still, the Lakers haven’t quite inspired fans’ confidence that they could actually contend for a title. Since their 2020 championship, the Lakers have gone on a downward trend, which reached its lowest point in 2022 when they gutted the team to trade for Russell Westbrook and fill in the roster with over-the-hill veterans’ minimum players.
Just as the Lakers have recovered somewhat from the Westbrook debacle, they’ve already fallen behind the contenders in the Western conference. If they manage to overcome the Denver Nuggets, they’ll still have to face the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks, and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Lakers are still a good team, but they have too many flaws–defense, rebounding–to be a contender this season. Still, fans can hope that first-year coach JJ Redick can build a winning culture with the team, even after James retires from the Lakers. Though, who knows, Pat Riley did win a ring during his first year as head coach of the Purple and Gold.
Can lightning strike twice?
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