As a professional footballer, everyone wants to last as long as possible at their peak. But it will be difficult for anyone to surpass LeBron James in this aspect.
At the end of this year, LeBron James will turn 37 while playing the 19th season of his career.
According to statistics from Basketball Reference, the “king” played a total of 50,055 minutes in the Regular Season, the 6th highest in NBA history. If you add up a lot of Playoffs games, James has a number of minutes on the field up to 61,090.
But despite having plowed into the top ranks of the tournament at the moment, LeBron is still maintaining top form and level of competition. Last season, the 17-time All-Star owner played well and was on track to the MVP title.
Unfortunately, a serious ankle injury in March caused LeBron James to sit out 26 of the Lakers’ last 30 games. He finished the season averaging 25.0 points, 7.8 assists and 7.7 rebounds per game.
Witnessing James’s top level of play, one of his rivals expressed admiration. In an interview with the press before the preseason game between the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry had winged words for LeBron.
“Let’s be honest and confess that LeBron James has set the bar for how to prolong his time at the top,” Stephen Curry said.
“Look at the numbers he had last season, his 18th year in the NBA and look at the nine NBA Finals in a row, the achievements he has achieved. It is the result of planning with foresight, investing a lot in the goal of prolonging the time at the top of the game.”
“Everyone wants to maintain it as long as possible but not everyone can do it. Looking at LeBron, we see that he changed the way he looked at it and did it.
Imagine the summers of training, resting scientifically, taking care of your body and mind effectively, maintaining a balance between time on and off the court…”, added Curry.
Stephen Curry is not as old as James (5 years younger), but the Warriors superstar himself feels it’s time for him to research how to “extend his life at the top” for his own.
Curry’s style of fighting is quite physically demanding because he is constantly moving, changing speed and direction to find even the smallest gaps. Then every time he slows down, Steph immediately directs his body towards the basket to effectively throw.
In parallel with the 3-pointers, Curry also balled and made a lot of breakthroughs. In the long run, his endurance and physicality will gradually decrease, no longer guaranteed at a high level.
That will be the story of the future, though. As for next season, Stephen Curry will have a great help from the return of Klay Thompson, who is expected to play again at the end of December.
Besides, the Warriors are also having the impressive shine of the player born in 1999 Jordan Poole, the owner of 2 consecutive excellent performances in the preseason (average 29.0 points/game).
