Former NBA player Ron Harper hasn’t come across as Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James‘ biggest fan over the years. Harper has fired some shots at James, and he recently downplayed how impressive his longevity is during an appearance on the Come And Talk 2 Me show.
“You can talk about LeBron James and his longevity,” Harper said. “He leads the league in this and that… Can you tell me what stat did LeBron James ever lead the NBA in a season? He led the league in scoring one time.”
Host Trysta Krick asked if James, who won the scoring title in 2008, ever led the NBA in assists, and Harper said he hadn’t. That’s not true, though. James won the assists title in 2020. Those are the only two times he led the league in a major category in a season.
“LeBron is a longevity guy,” Harper said. “He’s like a Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar]. They had longevity. When we played the ball game in our day, we didn’t play for longevity ’cause we knew you was gonna have an eight-to-10-year career… You’re going 82 games hard. If we could take off days, which we didn’t, we could probably play 18 years to 20.”
Despite being hampered by injuries, Harper played all 82 games four times in his career. He played at least 80 games in seven seasons.
As for James, he has played all 82 games just once, in the 2017-18 season. He played at least 80 games in three seasons.
Today’s players are definitely able to play longer thanks to load management. Teams themselves do not want them to play all 82 games, as they’re keeping their short and long-term health in mind.
That doesn’t take away from what James has managed to do, though. The 41-year-old became the first player in NBA history to play a 23rd season. He wasn’t just along for the ride either.
James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game for the Lakers in 2025-26. He can easily play another season at a relatively high level, and you doubt anyone else is going to be able to stick around for this long, even in the future. What he has done is nothing short of remarkable.
As for Harper’s other point about James not leading the NBA in categories more often, that’s down to him being an all-around player. If he had just focused on scoring or playmaking during his career, you better believe he’d have more of those titles today. That 2007-08 season was the only one in which James led the league in field goal attempts per game, and he won the scoring title.
So, Harper’s arguments kind of fall flat. You just wish he appreciated the greatness that he has been seeing for two decades.
Harper, though, is more interested in throwing shade. During All-Star weekend, he fired a shot at James when asked about his own sons playing in the NBA. The 22-time All-Star hadn’t reacted to shots that had been fired in the past, but once the topic of sons came up, you knew there was a chance he’d have something to say.
James would indeed fire back at Harper for his parenting comment. You wonder if the former might give the latter the Stephen A. Smith treatment if they end up crossing paths.
