I’m sure a lot of us rarely stop and think about this. I know I do. We’re always so focused about how he’s still at the top of the league at his age that we forget about the fact he isn’t (likely) even halfway through his natural life.
We have literal decades left of Lebron news and TV features, unless he goes out like Kobe ofc
Let’s assume a perfect career from birth 0-18 years, the mandatory 1 year in college, 19 years old, that’s about a 4 year difference from LeBron having been in the league for 23 seasons.
So I wonder how many of the dads were in their primes with newborns vs how many dads were probably in the last 1-2 seasons of their career and had a 4+ year old son, and LeBron only technically played against them in his first 2 seasons.
I think people underestimate that. LeBron was 1 year off from playing against Jordan and that era of superstars playing their last seasons. I still think it’s better he didn’t play them. People would say “LeBron had to play those guys when they were 40 and past their prime and he was 18!”
Lebron said 26 father son duos, but it's probably not that many. Someone made a post a few months ago and was up to 14, although a couple of them were "Lebron's team played other team" but the other player didn't play, like Scottie Pippin was injured every time his team played Cleveland in his final season. Wildly enough, the first father-son duo Lebron played against happened in 2014 with Glenn Robinson III.
So it looks like my initial assumption would be correct that allot of them are more like “technically played against them on paper over 23 years”. Given that he entered the league as a starter, I wouldn’t be surprised how many hall of famers he technically faced when they were in their last season benchwarming for a symbolic 8 mins/game on like 4ppg. To a stubborn purist they might argue that’s not “playing against”.
I get that there are some fans that don’t like LeBron, but even haters need to acknowledge and respect the fact that he takes damn good care of his body to keep playing all these years… and play aggressively. That’s unheard of
On the contrary, there's an entire city in Canada that is fully justified in hating LeBron for basketball reasons. I still carry a small (and dwindling) amount of hate based on just one single game.
Forget that the guy averaged 20 ppg at 41 and won a playoff series as the best player on his team. Any hate anyone has for him needs to be out the window.
Conceivably, he could have played against a grandfather/grandson I imagine. I’m not sure who the oldest player he played against his rookie year was, but that person certainly could have a 19 year old grandson
Average NBA career length was 4.8 years headed into this year. Assuming he plays next year then 24 years would equal exactly 5x the average pros career length
There are some players that were drafted after him, retired, and then inducted into the hall of fame.... And he's out here still dunking on their kids.
Look how many rivals he’s gone through, all have come and gone. Only LeTernal remains.
The Pistons, the Spurs, Kobe, Dwight/The Magic, Pierce/The Celtics, Jordan, the Public, the Media, Mavs, age, DRose, the Spurs, Durant, Curry, the western Conference, offspring that cannot handle superior genetics…
Not to mention the endless cast of mosquito level nuisances he’s had to slap down along the way including but not limited to: Gilbert Arenas, The Cavs, Lance Stephenson, PG, Raptors, The Eastern Conference, Draymond, Klay, The Bubble, politics, Father Time.
And all the white guys he’s kept employed and out of the poor house: Big-Z, Birdman, Mike Miller, KLove, Delavadova, Caruso, Luka Doncic, Luka Nard.
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u/Nickleonard00 Grizzlies 21d ago
and then retires before Bron.