SI:AM | LeBron James Enters Uncharted Territory as He Turns 41

While he is showing some signs of slowing down, James is still poised to be the best 41-year-old in NBA history.

As he turns 41, LeBron James is performing better than any player his age ever has. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m back from a hectic travel day and ready to dive into some sports news with you. There won’t be a newsletter tomorrow or on New Year’s Day, but I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday to recap the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. 

In today’s SI:AM: 
😬 Rams stumble vs. Falcons
⭕ Ohio State hunts another title
⚾ Andruw Jones’s HOF case

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Happy birthday, LeBron

LeBron James is set to join another exclusive club. Today is James’s 41st birthday, which means that when the Lakers host the Pistons at 10:30 p.m. ET on NBC, James will become just the 12th player in NBA history to appear in a game at age 41 or older. 

James has been so consistently excellent for the past 23 years that it’s easy to take his presence for granted. But his birthday is a great opportunity to step back and appreciate what he’s doing. 

Playing past age 40 is not unprecedented in the NBA, but no one at that age has performed as well as LeBron has. James played 56 games as a 40-year-old and averaged 23.9 points per game, the most of any 40-year-old ever. He scored at least 20 points in 39 of his 56 games as a 40-year-old, joining Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as one of only three players in NBA history with double-digit 20-point games after turning 40. 

There have been several players who’ve stayed on the court well into their 40s, but none have played as significant a role as James has. The oldest player to play in an NBA game is Nat Hickey, who logged two games for the Providence Steamrollers in 1948, just days before his 46th birthday. (Hickey was the team’s coach, and the Steamrollers finished the season at 6–42.) The modern record belongs to Kevin Willis (44 years, 224 days), who played five games for the Mavericks in the final weeks of the 2006–07 season. Robert Parish and Vince Carter are the only other players to appear in a game after their 43rd birthday. 

James is poised to play a much bigger role than any other player his age ever has. He’s averaging 32.9 minutes per game this season and has played at least 31 minutes in 11 of his 14 games. Only six players in NBA history have played at least 30 minutes in a game at age 41 or older, and none has done it more than 11 times. If he keeps up his current pace, LeBron is poised to obliterate that record. 

James remains a productive player, averaging 20.5 points, 6.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game this season, but he’s also undeniably showing signs of slowing down. He missed the first 14 games of the season with sciatica (a classic 40-year-old guy injury) and has settled into a supporting role behind Luka Dončić since his return. James is averaging just 15.2 field goal attempts per game, by far the lowest of his career, and has a career-low usage rate of 26.3% (about two percentage points lower than his rookie season). 

Playing alongside Dončić (the current NBA scoring leader) reduces the pressure on James and could serve to extend his career. It’s amazing that LeBron has been as dominant as he has been for so many years, but he needed a teammate like Dončić to take charge and allow him to catch his breath every once in a while. The thing that makes LeBron special, though, is that a reduced role still means playing 30-plus minutes per game and averaging 20 points for a 23rd year in a row. While Abdul-Jabbar, Parish and Carter went from being superstars in their prime to role players in their 40s, LeBron is still a force to be reckoned with. 

The best of Sports Illustrated

Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated

• Tiger Woods turns 50. Bob Harig reminisces while also asking if there could have been even more success if not for injuries and accidents for the 15-time major champion.
• The Rams have quickly tumbled from the NFC’s top seed, and quarterback Matthew Stafford may have squandered the MVP trophy Monday night in Atlanta, Matt Verderame writes.
• Gilberto Manzano makes a few rule proposals, including changes to the overtime format and which teams receive home field advantage in the playoffs, in this week’s Fact or Fiction.
• Ohio State is on the hunt for another national championship, and Bryan Fischer explores what motivates the Buckeyes as they eye back-to-back titles.
• Arsenal spent big money on Viktor Gyökeres in the summer, but Henry Winter argues that the club and the player have yet to bring out the best in each other, despite topping the Premier League table. 
• As Baseball Hall of Fame ballots are being filed, Will Laws makes the case for Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw Jones’s induction.

The top five…

… things I saw last night: 
5. Stephon Castle’s alley-oop off the backboard to Victor Wembanyama. 
4. Brad Marchand’s hand-eye coordination to deflect the puck out of the air and into the net. 
3. Jared Verse’s peace sign while returning a blocked field goal for a touchdown. 
2. The all-22 angle of Bijan Robinson’s 93-yard touchdown run. 
1. Brandon Miller’s dunk on top of Kyle Kuzma.