LeBron James is the face of the league, a generational superstar turned into a global celebrity. King James, as he is referred to, has been a constant in the NBA for 2 decades now, competing at the very highest level for almost all of that time. James has made the NBA Finals on 10 different occasions, and while he has lost more than he has won, it is still a long and distinguished career in the league.
And if it feels like he has been around forever, that’s probably because he has. The world was very different when James came into the league in 2003, and he has been a prominent presence ever since. Children born in the year he was drafted will be legally able to drink alcohol in about a year, to put it into perspective. And there is one stat, in particular, that is quite mind-boggling to think about in this context.
CRAZY: LeBron James has now spent over half of his life as a NBA player.
Age during debut: 6,878 days
Amount of time passed: 6,879 days
(via @georgemikan) pic.twitter.com/95JaTZ1cGL
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) August 28, 2022
“LeBron James has now spent over half of his life as an NBA player.
Age during debut: 6,878 days
Amount of time passed: 6,879 days.”
LeBron has utilized the time he has spent in the NBA fruitfully, the King is very close to breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time regular season scoring record. The fact that he has spent more time in his life as a part of the NBA than outside of it is insane to think when considering that the average career span in the league is just 4.5 years.
What makes it even more intriguing to think about is the fact that LeBron James doesn’t look like he’ll retire anytime soon either. Chris Paul recently addressed LeBron’s potential retirement, basically hinting that no one should expect to see it happen shortly. James has made himself a fundamental and indispensable part of the NBA, and it’s impossible to see how they will replace him when he does eventually hang it up.
