Thursday 2 April 2020 19:28, UK
LeBron James' sustained excellence is one of the most impressive feats of longevity in all of sport. Mark Deeks examines how 'The King' has remained at the peak of his game.
Vince Carter - currently 43 years old and still under contract to the Atlanta Hawks - is quite rightly lauded for his longevity. Having reinvented himself from an athletic specimen on the wing into a three-and-D power forward over the course of his career, Carter has aged incredibly gracefully, looking after his body and being fortunate with injuries.
Furthermore, 74 men born in 1984 have played at least one NBA game, and of those 74, only 21 played professionally somewhere this season. Of those 21, only six played in the NBA, and inevitably, they are at least slightly on the downswing - Andre Iguodala, Thabo Sefolosha, Carmelo Anthony and the two JJs: Redick and Barea.
Even in this era of load management, greatly improved biomechanics and sports medicine knowledge in which players are ageing better than ever, one man still towers above the rest.
If we take these 1984-born players and Carter as points of comparison, it truly speaks to quite how amazing LeBron James's sustained excellence is.
LeBron is now in his 17th season. If we generously compare that to Carter's 14th - accounting for the fact that Vince played three years at North Carolina, while James entered the NBA directly out of high school - we will find that at that time, Carter was a 10.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game player for the Dallas Mavericks.
By comparison, if the 2019-20 season does not resume, James will finish it with averages of 25.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 10.6 assists per game.
Of course, LeBron has always been a better player than Carter, yet Vince is one of the few players to whom he can be compared athletically, and when Vince was turning 35, he was starting to show it. Slightly reduced defensive stamina aside, James isn't.
Indeed, this year, James has added a new wrinkle to his game by leading the league in assists. Combined with a recommitment to defense - which is much easier to do when you are flanked with good defenders around you have Anthony Davis as a team-mate - 'The King' is pretty much as good as ever.
James is still very fast, ridiculously strong, explosive, skilled and capable of seeing the floor like no other. He still barrels his way into the paint at will, and, when given a well-spaced floor around him like the Lakers now have, his ability to throw precise pocket passes on the move makes many of these assists meaningful ones, not merely ones borne out of simple ball movement.
James is still the go-to guy in clutch situations. And he is still the face of the league, the All-Star captain, the yardstick for others, the one whose approval means the most.
James may not be the 'best' player in the league any longer, if such determinations can ever truly be made or ever truly matter, but indisputably, he is close. And considering his age and mileage, that is a stupendous achievement.
If you watch the LeBron James of today in comparison to the LeBron of, say, 2007, you will see subtle differences. As stupendously athletic as he still is, James' leaping ability, the frequency with which he used it and his bursts to the rim were all that slightly more prolific in his younger days.
That is particularly true on the defensive end, where the chase-down blocks that were once a near-nightly occurrence are now held in reserve for the big moments.
The LeBron of today walks a lot more than he used to - albeit admittedly not as much as in his final days with the Cleveland Cavaliers - and while this is offset by more received wisdom, communication and cerebral understanding of where he and all his team-mates should be, you can see how he has slowed slightly.
If you watch the LeBron James of today with no historical points of comparison, though, you will see a man with gravity, creativity and a still-dominant physical profile.
To see that and then realise he is invariably going to be the oldest player on the court (there are only nine players older than James in the league today; the aforementioned six, plus Kyle Korver, Udonis Haslem and Tyson Chandler, two of whom almost never play), is one of the most impressive feats of longevity in all of sport.
James has not merely sustained with the passage of time, either. He has improved as a player, as evidenced by the play of his Lakers this season and his role within that. This season more than any other has seen LeBron engage with his gifted passing ability, a hallmark of his game from day one and one of the major things separating him from the many other Jordan-pretenders of years past (Carter included).
James has always been as good of a passer as the very best point guards in the game despite playing a frontcourt position. This year, though, it became the thing he did the most because he had a two-man game option unlike any other he has ever had.
Having Davis alongside him means having one of the league's premier finishers on hand. Superb on the roll, willing to get out and run in transition, able to both take touches in the post and shoot from outside/the mid-range areas, while also able to handle the ball himself much better than most others of his size and position, Davis can score from every area of the court.
Pairing that with a player in James who can get to any spot on the floor and throw dimes through any seam to anyone, and the pairing of these physically-transcendent, highly-cerebral superstars was destined to work.
Roster construction has allowed the Lakers to get the very best out of James. Offensively, he is able to play the point guard position full-time. Defensively, he can hide out in the back line, preserving his stamina by virtue of not having to chase around on the perimeter. That means he can employ his intelligence and vision to call plays and switches from a position on the floor where he can best see everything unfolding.
All this at a time that the Lakers should really be seeing diminishing returns. So far, not a hint of it.
When James signed with the Lakers, he did so to a four-year deal, his first long-term contract since leaving the Miami Heat. It appears as though he will stay good enough throughout the entirety of the deal to give the Lakers at least a three-year championship window.
Even if LeBron was to lose 15 per cent of his current abilities for each of his remaining seasons, he would remain among the game's very best.
