Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James turned 40 on Monday and he has played in the NBA forever at this point. James is currently in his 22nd season in the league and when you’ve played as long as he has, you’ll come up against players from different generations. On James’ birthday, a fan on Reddit went viral for stating that the oldest player James played against was born in 1962 while the youngest was born in 2005.
The oldest player the individual was referring to was Kevin Willis, who was born on Sept. 6, 1962. Willis played for 21 seasons in the NBA after being drafted in 1984 which enabled him to cross paths with James. They played against each other a total of five times in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons, with LeBron winning on four occasions.
As for the youngest player James has faced, it’s Detroit Pistons forward Ron Holland. Holland was born on July 7, 2005, and was selected with the fifth pick of the 2024 NBA Draft. While James had the upper hand in terms of wins against Willis, that’s not the case here.
Holland and the Pistons swept the season series against James and the Lakers. They won the first meeting 115-103 on Nov. 4 and the second 117-114 on Dec. 23. Those wins made Holland one of the few who can claim to have never lost against James. Their head-to-head might just end at 2-0 in his favor too, as it’s unclear how much longer the Lakers superstar plans on playing.
At the Lakers’ practice session on Monday, James stated he could play for 5-7 more years but won’t.
“It won’t be because I can’t play the game at a high level. It won’t be that because if I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level for another 5 to 7 years, but I’m not gonna do that… Of course (I’ll miss it) but come back? No. I’ll miss the hell out of it but I won’t walk away and come back.”
James has shown us time and time again that it’s foolish to doubt him, but even he won’t be able to play at a high level for another seven years. As stated earlier, he is 40 years old now and it just won’t be possible for him to still dominate on the court at 47.
James does have gas in the tank to go on for another year or two, though. He is averaging 23.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Lakers in 2024-25 while shooting 49.6% from the field. Remarkably, he is still able to play this well and it will be interesting to see how much longer he keeps this up.
We’ll see James in action next when the Lakers take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday at 9 PM ET.
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