LeBron James turns 40 Monday, another milestone for the NBA’s all-time scoring leader

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When LeBron James broke another NBA record earlier this month, the one for most regular-season minutes played in a career, his Los Angeles Lakers teammates handled the moment in typical locker room fashion.

They made fun of him.

“They told me I’m old as hell,” James quipped.

By NBA standards, they’re not wrong. He was dubbed “The Kid from Akron” when the Ohio native entered the league with a limitless future nearly 22 years ago. He’s now the 40-year-old from Los Angeles with wisps of gray in his beard. He turned 40 on Monday and, in his next game, will become the first player in NBA history to appear in a game in his teens, 20s, 30s and 40s.

Such a feat has happened a couple of dozen times in baseball before. It has happened in hockey – Gordie Howe was a five-decade player, appearing in the NHL from his teens to his 50s – but never in the NFL or the NBA. Until now. James is making more basketball history and creating a club all of his own.

“In some ways he’s a freak of nature,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “I’ve been around a lot of great players and he’s one of the hardest-working players I’ve been around. I mean, he doesn’t take a day off. He seems to not take an afternoon off. He’s always working on some part of his body. You meet with him and he’s always soaking something or eating something or has some contraption attached to him.”

A 40th birthday, in NBA terms, means the on-court end is near. James will become the 30th player to appear in a regular-season game with a “4” as the first digit of his age; only nine logged more than 51 games after that birthday. He’ll be the 32nd player to play after turning 40 overall; Tim Duncan and Danny Schayes both turned 40 during playoff runs in what became their final seasons.

And for the most part, big numbers are largely nonexistent at that age.

Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who did it three times), John Stockton (twice), Michael Jordan, Robert Parish and Karl Malone have averaged more than 10 points in a season after turning 40. Jordan averaged 22.4 points in 30 games after turning 40 in his final season with Washington; Malone is…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lebron-james-turns-40-monday-165423892.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-30 16:54:00

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