LeBron James is officially 33 years old, nearly halfway through his 15th season in the NBA, and may be playing the best basketball of his life. What LeBron is doing is (like most of the rest of his career) unprecedented.
How LeBron James is playing the best ball of his life at age 33
He could win MVP!
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Steve Kerr detailed it all on Christmas.
“How many players are better in year 15 than in year 10?” the Warriors head coach said, according to Cleveland.com. “And then especially when you’re talking about superstars. ... Go down the list: Michael (Jordan), (Larry) Bird, Magic (Johnson), Wilt (Chamberlain), Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Russell. A lot of them didn’t even get to 15 years. Were any of them better in year 15 than in year 10? I can’t imagine.”
(Only Jordan, Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar made it to year 15, and neither played nearly as well as their year 10 season.)
“So, what he (James) has done with his game is just incredible,” Kerr said. “He’s always been the dominant, physical force from year 1. But the skill at this point is better than it’s ever been.”
So what areas has LeBron improved in?
Well, a lot of them.
Most impressively, LeBron has taken maybe the weakest point in his offensive game, and not only made it a strength, but a huge part of his nightly game: three-point shooting.
James’ three-pointers fell below league average for the first eight years of his career, but he’s turned it around this season with 40 percent shooting for the second time (previously 2013). That’s four percent better than the league average, edging out known deep-ball threats J.J. Redick, Kevin Durant, James Harden, and many others in efficiency.
He’s also taking 27 percent of his shots from deep, the most frequent of his entire career. More than a quarter of his shot attempts are dedicated to something he used to be bad at!
LeBron is finishing through contact and close defense better than ever, too.
He’s always been able to run through a line of defenders and absorb hits because he’s enormous, but never like this before. With a defender 0-2 feet away, he’s hitting shots at a 76 percent clip on 1.6 attempts, per NBA tracking stats. That’s up from 73 percent last season and 61 percent the season before. With a defender 2-4 feet away, he’s improved just the same, shooting 66 percent — up from 64 and 59 percent in the last two seasons respectively.
This all comes without sacrificing his other stats:
- Career-high 9.3 assists per game (second in the league)
- 8.2 rebounds per game (second best season)
- 78 percent free-throw shooting (second best season)
- 56 percent from the field (third best season)
Keep in mind that he’s more than 42,000 minutes into his career.
Holy crap.
What’s his secret?
It’s in the wine!
Could he be MVP this year?
Absolutely.
He’ll face tough competition in James Harden, but LeBron could win his fifth MVP in year 15 with a 28-9-8 line on some of the most efficient shooting in his already historic career. This could go down as his best season to date.
A 33-year-old MVP? Has that been done before?
Three players have been named MVP at age 33 or older: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (33), Karl Malone (35), and Michael Jordan (35). None of them had better years than what LeBron is doing right now. And though all of them had brilliant MVP seasons, their final MVP years weren’t the best of their careers.
LeBron is more frightening than he was five years ago.
And he was damn frightening five years ago.
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