Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I guess I should make a Super Bowl pick, huh? I’ll go with the Chiefs, 31–27.
In today’s SI:AM:
😲 40 for 40-year-old LeBron
🏟️ Super Bowl’s spiritual home
🏀 Indiana’s hoops reboot
A different kind of 40–40 club
Did you know that LeBron James is 40 years old? No, seriously. I know that it was pretty big news when he celebrated his 40th birthday in December, but I need to make sure because he’s been playing lately like he’s still 28.
Thursday night’s win over the Golden State Warriors was the latest instance of James turning back the clock, as he finished with 42 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists in a 120–112 Los Angeles Lakers win.
That kind of game is nothing new for LeBron. It was the 78th 40-point game of his career and his 35th 40-point double-double. But at 40 years and 38 days old, it made him the oldest player in NBA history to score 40 points in a game, 34 days older than Michael Jordan was when he had 43 points on Feb. 21, 2003. LeBron is now the oldest and youngest player in NBA history to have a 40-point game, having also done so as a rookie in March 2004 at the age of 19 years and 88 days.
“I’m old,” James said after the game. “I need a glass of wine and some sleep.”
The fact that James is playing at all at age 40 is already impressive enough. There have only been 30 players in NBA history to play a game after their 40th birthday, and none of them have been as consistently productive as LeBron has been over the past month. James has only played 18 games since his most recent birthday but is already the NBA’s all-time leader in 30-point games by a 40-year-old with five. Jordan had four in 30 games and Dirk Nowitzki had one in 51 games. Only 10 40-year-olds have even had 20 points in a game, a feat James has accomplished in 16 of those 18 games, tied with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the second-most such games in the history of the league (behind Jordan’s 20).
Watching James on Thursday night, it was easy to forget his age. If you had used A.I. to swap a Cavs jersey on him and remove the gray from his beard, anyone could have thought they were watching the same version of LeBron who ruled the NBA a decade ago. He wasn’t just posted up in the corner waiting to knock down an open three like Vince Carter did when he played well into his 40s. LeBron made smart, veteran plays, of course, but he was also aggressive in transition and with his off-ball movement. He looked every bit like an elite athlete.
Compare that to Jordan’s 40-point game with the Washington Wizards. Jordan was playing straight up old-man basketball, jab-stepping and pump-faking defenders into oblivion before knocking down midrange jumpers. (He took 30 shots in that game, all of them from inside the arc.)
Jordan’s two seasons with the Wizards are a complicated part of his legacy. Returning to play in the NBA after a three-year absence was a remarkable accomplishment, but he ended his career on a sour note, looking like a shell of his former self. LeBron, meanwhile, hasn’t lost a step as he plays his 22nd NBA season. No player has been this productive for this long. He has averaged at least 20 points per game in all 22 of his professional seasons, five more seasons than any other player in the history of the league.
The Lakers have been inconsistent during LeBron’s seven seasons in Los Angeles. They won the NBA Finals in the bubble in 2020 but have only won a playoff series in one of the four seasons since. Making a deep playoff run this season could be difficult, as the Lakers work to integrate Luka Doncic into the offense on the fly. But with a 40-year-old James who’s still capable of taking over games, would you be shocked if they made some noise in the postseason?
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Today’s Digital Cover is Steve Rushin’s essay on why New Orleans is the spiritual home of the Super Bowl.
- Albert Breer’s latest pre–Super Bowl dispatch is on how Travis Kelce still leads by example 12 years into a Hall of Fame career.
- Greg Bishop makes a compelling argument that Eli Manning’s Hall of Fame case is even stronger than Peyton’s.
- As Mike Woodson’s tenure at Indiana seems to be coming to a close, Pat Forde writes that the Hoosiers need a total reboot of the basketball program.
- Donald Trump met with PGA commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott to discuss the ongoing dispute with LIV Golf, Bob Harig reports.
- The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its 2025 class during Thursday’s NFL Honors show.
- Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, was sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding the Dodgers star.
- Doncic is reportedly expected to make his Lakers debut next week.
- A UMass student who won $10,000 for making a half-court shot had the prize taken away over a technicality.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | LeBron James’s History-Making Night Against the Warriors.
