At the same age as 40, James was selected for the All-A Second Team, and Jabbar won the fifth championship! What about Jordan?

In NBA history, there has never been a shortage of top stars who can dominate the NBA at their peak. For example, Chamberlain, he is one of the most dominant superstars in NBA history. He once won the regular season scoring champion for seven consecutive years, and has also won 4 MVPs, 1 FMVP and other personal achievements. However, even Chamberlain, he failed to play until he was 40 in the NBA, which led to the records of total scores and other sets he set were later broken by other stars.

In fact, it is absolutely rare in the league's long history. Looking back, neither they were older rookies like Chamberlain who entered the league at the age of 22 or high school graduates like Kobe who entered the NBA at the age of 18, they had not achieved this achievement.

And in the active NBA, James became the first player to achieve this feat. In his 22nd season, he celebrated his 40th birthday, and he once again proved why he was called the longest river in NBA history! In the early stage of the 2024-2025 season, James was in a very bad shape for a while. From the game he lost to the Nuggets at home, his shooting percentage of less than 50% in six consecutive games, and during this period, he made 3 of 30 three-pointers. In the end, James averaged only 16.8 points per game and made 5 turnovers per game. It can be said that his performance during that period was completely in retirement.

Under this circumstance, James was naturally ridiculed. Many fans and media who had long disliked him said that he should give way to young players at this age. Even because of his poor performance in those six games, James' previous honors were deprived. The most helpless thing is that not only the fans who don’t like James’ expressions of dissatisfaction, but also many remarks in his own fan group that he might really deserve to retire.

However, as a super giant, James obviously cannot accept that his career ended with such an ending, and he also firmly believes that his condition will recover. James did not let his efforts go in vain. In his first game against the Hawks, he finally broke out. In this game, he played in 43 minutes and scored 39 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks. His shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage were as high as 56% and 54.5% respectively. Although the Lakers still suffered three consecutive losses due to this game, James' recovery is obviously more important than the outcome of this game. After

, the Lakers chose to let James take a turn off, so he got nearly a week's vacation. During this period, James got plenty of rest to adjust his physical condition. In his first game after his comeback, James scored 18 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks. Although his overall shooting percentage was only 41.2%, three-pointers from 3 of 6 shots proved that he did not return to his sluggish state before the rest.

In the later period, although James' performance still fluctuated, at least he would not have only side effects on the court. Moreover, as he scored 30+ more times during this period, it also shows that he has basically completely gotten out of the season's low.

As time goes by, the regular season gradually went on in the second half. Considering the fierce competition in the Western Conference, the Lakers did not dare to be careless at all. However, at this time the team received "bad news" one after another. First, Thani Brow was injured and confirmed that she would miss the game for a while. Then he was then taken to trade Doncic. Although the latter was younger and stronger, the team's main player substitution in the middle of the season was not necessarily a good thing for the Lakers' chemistry. In addition, Doncic was also in the recovery stage at the time, so if the team wanted to win, the burden of leading the team fell on James.

And in this case, James ushered in a long wave of output. Under his leadership, the team not only did not decline due to successive changes, but their rankings improved. Finally, throughout February, James averaged 29.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game, with his shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage as high as 55.5% and 44.3% respectively. During this period, the Lakers also achieved a record of 10 wins and 2 losses.

After the end of the regular season, the Lakers won 50 wins and ranked third in the West, while James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1 steal and 2.1 three-pointer, with a shooting percentage of 51.3% and a three-point shooting percentage of 37.6%. It is also worth mentioning that at this age, his free throw percentage hit a career-high 78.2%. With his outstanding team record and personal performance, James was selected into the All-A Second Team again after 4 years, and he also ranked sixth in the league in the MVP voting list.

After spending a lot of time introducing the performance of 40-year-old James, don't think that this is the state that 40-year-old players should have. Among all 40-year-old players in NBA history, James' performance is the only one. Even Jabbar, who is also known as the NBA evergreen, averaged only 14.6 points, 6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 blocks per game at the age of 40. During his performance at the same time, Jabbar obviously cannot compare to James, but compared with other 40-year-old players, Jabbar still has a clear advantage.

However, if compared with James, Jabbar is one thing that is his playoff record that season. James was eliminated in the first round at the age of 40. For Jabbar, he successfully won the fifth championship ring in his NBA career that year. That year, he averaged 14.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game in the playoffs..

In addition to James and Jabbar, the name that should appear on the President Hill of the 40-year-old NBA player must also be Michael Jordan. Because he has retired many times in his career, he is already 40 years old in his 15th NBA season. At that time, Jordan joined the Wizards after his second comeback. In his first season here, he averaged 22.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He played here for another season. Before the regular season began, he once said that he would continue to strive to bring the team into the playoffs.

2002-2003 season, the 40-year-old Jordan averaged 20 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 steals, and a shooting percentage of 44.5%. It is worth mentioning that he played in 82 regular season games this year, and there is no one with such physical fitness. Unfortunately, Jordan's game influence and team leadership ability during this period were far inferior to his peak period, and the Wizards' lineup was also very bad, so they missed the playoffs in the end.