Father Time, they say, is undefeated. But right now he’s taking quite a beating from a freak-of-nature opponent whose talent at times seems will never run out.
LeBron James turned 40 on Monday and he is defying age by way of a stat line in his 22nd NBA season that most players would love to have in year five. Through 31 games, James’ average of 24 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists puts him in the NBA’s top 30 in each category. On top of that, he’s shooting 50% from the field. In what counts as a full circle moment, for his first game as a 40-year-old James is expected to suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night to face the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that drafted him in 2003 and the team he helped win a championship in 2016.
James is expected to suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night to face the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that drafted him in 2003.
What’s remarkable about James isn’t just that he’s about to join the small group of NBA players who’ve played at 40 but, as USA Today puts it, “James will become the only player in the 40-club to also be among the 31 youngest players ever to play in the NBA. He started his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 29, 2003, at 18 years, 303 days old.”
With the exception of the 2003-2004 NBA season — during which he was named the NBA Rookie of the Year — James has been named an NBA All-Star every season he’s played. He broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record for most points scored in the NBA almost two years ago and is now 2,744 points ahead of The Captain. Vince Carter, who retired after 22 seasons, is the only other person to ever play this long in the NBA.
The difference between Carter and James is that Carter wasn’t nearly as potent in his 22nd season. James’ current stats are not the kind of numbers we see from players nearing retirement. Even he said as much on his birthday, telling the media that he believes he could play at a high level until he’s almost 50.
“To be honest, if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level for about another — weird that I might say this — but about another five or seven years, if I wanted to,” James said. “But I’m not going to do that.”
We don’t know exactly when he’ll retire, but we can acknowledge that he’s already well into his second act.
A decade ago, when examining the social impact of Black athletes, I wrote that James was perhaps the “singular, emancipated athlete in all of American professional team sports.” Then 30, he had already locked in a Hall of Fame career with two NBA championships and three Olympic medals, including two gold. But what really stood out was that, with the Black Lives Matter movement in its infancy, James was finding his voice on social issues, building a reputation as a rainmaker in boardrooms and gaining a reputation for eschewing endorsement deals and instead pioneering a business model in which he negotiated for equity in the brands that sought his Midas touch.
To be honest, if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level for another five or seven years. But I’m not going to do that.”
lebron james on turning 40 years old
He cultivated relationships with arch-capitalists, including TV producer Tom Werner and investor Warren Buffet, and used those relationships not only to enrich himself, but also to help other athletes of his era set up shop. He took advantage of the NBA’s collectively bargained free agency rules and showed other players that they could control their own financial and on-court destiny. With LeBron at the helm, everyone — not just billionaire team owners — could eat.
Since then, James won two more NBA championships and flipped his equity in the English Premier League’s Liverpool club into a piece of the team’s corporate owner, Fenway Sports Group. That means that instead of just owning a piece of a soccer team, he’s got an interest in the company that holds the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, a NASCAR racing team and a real estate holdings operation. Last month, his production company, SpringHill, merged with Fulwell 73, an entertainment firm best known for producing “The Kardashians.” James could have walked away from basketball at any point in the last 10 years and he’d still have as much cultural impact as any of today’s emerging business leaders or streaming stars. He’d have more cultural impact than almost any American athlete to precede him, with the possible exceptions of Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali. Today, LeBron James turns 40 🎂 Kobe Bryant, James’ basketball rival and real-life friend and mentor, was somewhat of a precedent for what’s likely to come in James’ life post basketball. In 2013, while still playing for the Lakers and seven years before his tragic death, Bryant, a five-time NBA champion with connections and vision, set up a private equity firm, Bryant-Stibel, which is still in operation. Also in 2016, Bryant launched a media house, Granity Studios. He was setting himself up to take advantage of opportunities that even most wealthy athletes can’t parlay after retirement. It’s awful that we never got to see that unfold. In LeBron, we may be looking at our next best chance to see what the fulfillment of that dream looks like. But in the meantime, we can still watch the wunderkind from Akron, Ohio, stay out ahead of Father Time. A decade ago, when examining the social impact of Black athletes, I wrote that James was perhaps the “singular, emancipated athlete in all of American professional team sports.” Then 30, he had already locked in a Hall of Fame career with two NBA championships and three Olympic medals, including two gold. But what really stood out was that, with the Black Lives Matter movement in its infancy, James was finding his voice on social issues, building a reputation as a rainmaker in boardrooms and gaining a reputation for eschewing endorsement deals and instead pioneering a business model in which he negotiated for equity in the brands that sought his Midas touch.
Keith Reed
Keith Reed is an award-winning journalist and a past senior editor at ESPN. His work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Root, Vibe, Essence and elsewhere. 
