Hi and Exist: LeBron’s Legend Refuses to End

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Ask yourself what you have done in the last 18 years, and as soon as you arrive at the answer, imagine those years in your head using a curve, in the spirit of the time. Your curve will probably look like a roller coaster – once up, once down, and again up again, because that’s the life of normative humans, but not of LeBron James.

“LeBron is a lot better today than he was in his day in Miami,” the Golden State coach said Steve Kerr A few weeks ago, and the truth? This sentence was not caught. He was not perceived because at the age of 36 (on December 30) LeBron had managed to reinvent himself, and if we look at his curve – it seems to be only rising and rising.

You do not have to agree with Kerr’s statement, but you do have to admit that at least there is room here to discuss whether the current version of James is the best we’ve seen. Mature, more experienced, smarter, more complete, more coordinated – this’s a LeBron 2020 model, and it’s mostly not obvious. So just before James opens his 18th season in the NBA, we’ll try to figure out how historic this machine really is, look at the records he’s going to break and look at a few more issues worth dwelling on.

one of a kind
As every sports fan in the world knows – LeBron James is a phenomenon, but to really understand how much, one has to compare him to other basketball players throughout history and check out what they did at the age of 36. Let’s start first with LeBron himself: he comes after winning the championship with Los Angeles Les + MVP of the final series with averages of 27.6 points per game, 10.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists. In the regular season, by the way, he led the league in assists for the first time in his career with 10.2 per game. And what did the other greats do at that age?

Michael Jordan: Did not play in the NBA following his second retirement, when a season earlier he won his sixth championship. It is very possible that MJ would have raced to another championship at the age of 36, but factually, that did not happen.

Magic Johnson: Joined the Lakers retirement season after not playing four consecutive seasons. Magic scored 14.6 points per game and LA was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Larry Byrd: Retired from basketball at age 35. In his final season Boston was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

Kobe Bryant: Scored 22.3 points on average in 35 games. A season earlier he had played six games and in both seasons the Lakers did not qualify for the playoffs.

Shaquille O’neill: His last season in the top, in the Phoenix uniform. Scored 17.8 points per game and was selected to the third five of the season.

Wilt Chamberlain: Retired at the end of this season. Scored 13.2 points per game in the regular season and 10.4 in the playoffs.

Bill Russell: Retired from the NBA a season earlier, during which he averaged 9.9 points per game in the regular season and 10.8 points in the playoffs.

The list goes on and on, and among all the stars there are of course those who continued to stand out even at a late age, like Tim Duncan and Karim Abdul Jabbar for example, but no one in the history of the industry (and perhaps even in sports) has been as dominant as LeBron at 36.

What’s really amazing is that LeBron did not evolve late, quite the opposite. He came to the league at the youngest age possible, immediately became a superstar who met all the reasonable and illogical expectations he faced, and still remained in the top after everyone else. In fact, believe it or not, LeBron is the fifth (!) Oldest player in the NBA, and in his case – it does not look like the engine will shut down any time soon.

Records were meant to be broken
It was a 2014 final, San Antonio leading 1: 3 over Miami and LeBron James preparing for Game 5, knowing that the 32 teams that were ahead of him in this situation – failed to return in the final series. “Records are meant to be broken, they are broken all the time,” he said LeBron Ahead of the game. “Why should we not be the ones rewriting history?”. Well, the Heat failed to get back to 3-4, but as you know two years later in 2016 King James smashed the glass ceiling with a historic championship.

And for that matter, the Lakers star has reached this stage in his career that in order to break records he no longer has to win on a heroic comeback, it is enough for him to get on the floor and hold the orange ball. That is, every LeBron game is accompanied by another record and another record and it will not be stopped until James is stopped.

The following paragraphs are intended for number people, so if you are not, you may want to skip to the next section. In order to see where LeBron would climb in the various statistics pages, we relied on the numbers Q “Fantasy ESPN” He was predicted for this season with an estimate that he will play 63 games out of the 72:

Averages: 33.5 minutes, 25 points, 2 threes, 7.7 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks.
Total: 2110 minutes, 1575 points, 126 threes, 485 rebounds, 560 assists, 76 drops and 38 blocks.

Assuming this is what LeBron’s numbers will look like, these are the highs he will break or at least approach:
– Will rise from eighth place to fourth place in the all-time minutes table (there will be a distance of 6785 from Abdul Jabbar in first place)

– Will remain in third place in the table of scenes at all times (will be 2571 distance from Abdul Jabbar and 1112 from Karl Hotel in second place)

– Will rise from 15th place to 10th place in the triples table (972 Mary Allen)

– Will rise from 48th place to 41st place in the rebounds table (14,034 from Wilt Chamberlain)

– Will rise from eighth place to sixth place in the assists table (5900 from John Stockton)

– Will rise from 13th place to 11th place in the kidnapping table (1174 from Stockton)

– Will rise from 105th place to 97th place in the blocking table (2835 from Hakim Oljuan)

All of these numbers belong in the regular season that sometimes feels like a pre-season for LeBron, but in the playoffs the monster really comes out, and that can be clearly seen in the stats. In the playoffs LeBron is ranked first in minutes, first in points, second in threes (56 from Steph Kerry), sixth in rebounds (1756 from Bill Russell), second in assists (475 from Magic), first in steals and 11 in blocks (318 from Duncan).

how does he do it?
First of all, it should be understood that LeBron James has played an unreasonable amount of basketball throughout his career, probably compared to the rest of the players in the league. Of all the active players in the NBA, LeBron recorded 59,364 minutes in the regular season and playoffs. And who is in second place? Carmelo Anthony, with 42,979 minutes. In order for Carmelo to close the gap, he needs to play over 340 full games (48 minutes) and LeBron will stop playing.

Back to our question – how the hell does he do that? We will get the answer without going into genetics, fitness and nutrition. While NBA players rest in certain games (Load Management), the veteran forward learned to “rest” while playing. Last season in Miami LeBron ran 4.12 miles per game, and last season that number dropped to an average of 3.7 miles.

Also, out of the 127 players who played at least 30 minutes per game last season, LeBron is ranked 122nd in the speed index (5.9 km / h). Of all the players on this list, only James Harden spent less time than LeBron on the field running at a moderate pace 18.6% vs. 19% of the Lakers star.In other words, LeBron knows how to conserve his energy.

This energy is also reflected in the way his game has changed along with the entire league. In days gone by LeBron would have taken a lot more shots from half distance, which usually require him to be more aggressive and penetrate, but he learned to take a step back, literally. In the first championship season 40% of his shots came from half-distance, and 12.7% from three, while last season only 17% of his shots were half-distance and 32.6% (career high) came from outside the arc.

In addition to the threes, which he scored by 37% in the last playoffs, we also see LeBron penetrating less and less. In the 2018 playoffs James penetrated the basket 22.8 times per 100 passers, and in the bubble that number dropped to 16.8, both because he had Anthony Davis and also because he became a smarter player who knows how to maintain efficiency while maintaining his body. 38 players took 50+ colored shots in the last playoffs, and whoever led them in shooting percentage was LeBron with 71.2%.

No one does it better than him (Getty)

No one does it better than him (Getty)

What awaits us in 2020/21?
It’s a bit strange to say this about one of the greatest athletes ever seen, but unlike most of LeBron’s career, this time he comes into the season as a definite favorite. According to the betting agencies this is the first time since the 2014/15 season that James’ team is a favorite for the championship, and it is certainly understandable why.

LeBron arrives this season after just a 71-day break (the shortest ever), with one of the strongest, if not the strongest, staffs they have had. Davis proved he’s the best player to play with James (at the same time he played with him) and last summer he was joined by the sixth player of the season, Montreux Harrell and his deputy Dennis Schroeder – a privilege the Lakers star has never had. With the skeleton maintained + the rivalry situation + the fact that there is no home advantage and LeBron will be able to afford to rest more than ever in the regular season – the champion needs to maintain her title.

What awaits us in 2023/24?
We have long imagined the moment when LeBron James will collaborate with his son Bruni, and from there, we are not far from this day. LeBron has taught us over the years that like a true ruler, everything is planned with him. It is no coincidence that the new contract he signed a few weeks ago ends in the summer of 2023, because LeBron also knows what the last chapter of his career should look like.

“The best thing about my contract is that in the year I become a free agent my son will finish school,” he said LeBron. “I will have options, it seems …”. In European basketball in 1990 we saw Dino play a 40-year-old playmaker against his son Andrea in the Italian league, but nothing like that has ever happened on the NBA hardwood floor.

If LeBron and Bruni join forces, we will all get another stamp that a basketball player like LeBron will not be seen and it is doubtful even if he will be seen. James will get a new ‘case’ to discuss the greatest in history, and we’ll get a perfect ‘finale’ with the message that LeBron has been so eager to convey to us – his legend needs a son, just as every king needs an heir.

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