FILE–Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James reacts after missing a basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) 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. READ: Only LeBron knows what’s happening right now and his future 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. His milestone birthday comes Monday, one that will make him the first player in NBA history to play 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 .