Lebron still defying the odds
Lebron James is 38 years old. He is in Season 20 of his NBA career. He is, by conventional basketball-playing standards, ancient. History says his decline should have started already.
Except it hasn’t. Not even close. And count that as just another example of what sets James apart from so many other greats.
The NBA’S new scoring leader — he caught Kareem Abdul-jabbar on Tuesday night, one Los Angeles Lakers great taking the record from another — is still one of the very best in the game. He is talking about playing three more years, maybe more. He could raise the scoring-record bar so high by the time he retires that it would be, at best, highly unrealistic for anyone to catch him.
“I know I’m still playing at a high level. ... I’ve been able to do some incredible things in this league,” James said after he scored 38 points on the recordsetting night to lift his career total to 38,390 — three more than Abdul-jabbar, whose reign atop the NBA scoring list ended after almost 39 years. “And hopefully I can do some more incredible things before I’m done.”
The unfortunate part about most longevity records is this: Young athletes don’t set them. By design, they’re usually broken by athletes who are at or near the end of their career.
Take Pete Rose, for example. Rose got his 4,192nd career hit — a record-breaker, the one where he passed Ty Cobb’s official total — on Sept. 11, 1985.
At that moment, when Rose lined that hit off Eric Show, he was a .304 career hitter. But after the record- setter, he batted .225 for the remainder of his career. In fairness, he was 44 and 45 years old during that stint of batting .225.
He slowed down. It happens to everyone. Well, almost everyone.
“I think about the wear and tear on Lebron’s body and the lack of sleep and the 3 1/2 games a week, season after season, how he takes care of himself,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “I hope the young players pay attention to that.”
Tiger Woods got 79 wins in 295 PGA Tour starts between 1996 and 2013, a ridiculously highfor-golf 27% winning rate. Since then, after off-the- course issues and a slew of injuries, Woods has won three times in 62 starts. He has tied Sam Snead for the alltime wins record on tour with 82. No one would dare doubt Woods can find a way to get one more win and claim the record outright, but few would also say that it should be considered likely.
Wayne Gretzky caught Gordie Howe for the all-time NHL goals record and was still every bit The Great One — his moniker for decades now. But over his last five seasons after setting the record, Gretzky’s production predictably dipped a bit. He averaged 0.25 goals and 1.1 points per game over those last five seasons, at the ages of 34 through 38. Before that, he averaged 0.71 goals and 2.2 points per game.
Even Abdul- Jabbar, af ter catching Wilt Chamberlain in 1984, saw his numbers decrease. Before the record, Abdul-jabbar averaged 27.0 points. Afterward, 17.7 points.
“Kareem was a great player his entire career, even after setting the record,” said Pat Riley, his coach with the Lakers. “The record didn’t change anything for him.”
There are two notable exceptions to the notion that says player production almost always must drop off after setting records.
James is the first one. The other is Tom Brady.
The recently retired seventime Super Bowl champion never slowed down after catching Drew Brees for three of the biggest records a quarterback can have — most completions, most touchdowns and most yards.
So far, we can say the same about James. He continues to defy Father Time.
And now, sit back and watch how many more points he adds to this total.