LeBron James has never shied away from defending the realities of today’s NBA, and his latest comments on the Mind the Game podcast cut straight to a debate fans have argued for years. According to LeBron, playing 82 games in the modern NBA is fundamentally harder than it was in the 1980s and 1990s, even if the game today looks less physical on the surface.
“I want people to understand, and our fans to understand, that playing 82 games in the 80s and 90s is not the same as playing 82 games in the 2020s. It’s just not. The way we play, the level of pace, the level of speed we’re playing at, it’s a different game now.”
“It’s a totally different game. You see a lot more soft tissue injuries now because of it, and I hope we can get a handle on that as well, because that’s big in our game. When I first came into the league, some of the biggest injury concerns were things like a high ankle sprain.”
“You were afraid to step on somebody’s ankle because there were four or five guys sitting in the paint. Guys with athleticism like myself, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, just to name a couple, sometimes you were afraid to take off into the lane because it was so crowded.”
“If you landed on someone’s ankle, you’d get a high ankle sprain and be out four to six weeks. Now you don’t really see that as much because the game is so spread out and played at such a high pace. But now the new high ankle sprain is the calf.”
“So hopefully we can get a handle on that from a medical standpoint, but it’s just the game. I just want fans to understand that the game is different, and as NBA players, we definitely want to be out there as much as possible.”
The numbers back LeBron up. In the 2014–15 season, the average NBA team covered roughly 16.83 miles per game. In the 2024–25 season, that number has jumped to 18.35 miles. A decade ago, the San Antonio Spurs led the league at 17.68 miles per game. That same total would rank near the bottom of the league today. If the physical demands have increased this dramatically in just ten years, the difference compared to the 1980s or 1990s becomes impossible to ignore.
This rise in workload is showing up in injury reports across the league. From 1990 to 2023, 45 NBA players suffered Achilles tears. In the previous season alone, eight have already occurred.
Tyrese Haliburton was the 12th star to suffer an ACL or Achilles injury during the 2024–25 campaign. Even more alarming, four of the five best players in the league are now in danger of missing the 65-game threshold required for end-of-season awards due to injury.
LeBron’s message is not an excuse. He made it clear that players want to be on the floor as much as possible. Instead, his argument is about understanding context. The modern NBA demands more movement, more speed, and more explosive actions than ever before. While there may be less body-to-body contact, the physical toll on players is significantly higher.
In LeBron’s view, fans comparing eras without acknowledging these changes are missing the bigger picture. The game has evolved, and so have the challenges that come with surviving an 82-game season in today’s NBA.
