How LeBron James Stacks Up Against Other NBA Legends at 30: LeBron James has already built a career full of milestones. Turning 30 is just the next checkpoint on his road to the Hall of Fame. Except it isnt. Thirty is a big deal, particularly in LeBrons line of work. Theres a stigma attached to that age among NBA athletes. Basketball is a young mans game, and with precious few exceptions, a players best is behind him when he passes the three-decade mark. Even if theres been no decline in quality by age 30, there is, at least, the acknowledgment that quantity is running out. Thirty means a player is closer to the end than the beginning. James is an exceptional talent, though, defined as much by his intellect as his athleticism. As his legs tire, his mind may sharpen. Post-ups may increasingly stand in for blow-by drives. Smart cuts and sneaky positioning should keep the inside buckets coming, even if they someday occur below the rim more often than above it. And that passing instinct will always, always be there. If theres anyone we should expect to age well, its LeBron. So, as we acknowledge James exceptional game, its only right to compare him to the superstar outliers and singular greats who came before. Heres how he stacks up, at 30, against a few luminary peers from the past. As you can see, James pre-30 career compares favorably with those of his big-name predecessors. He leads the field with four MVP awards, 23,901 points, 34,364 minutes and 871 games. His 10 All-Star appearances tie him with Bryants total. James has an edge in counting numbers on the likes of Bird, Jordan and Johnson because his time in the NBA started earlier. As a 19-year-old rookie, he had a head start on the legends of the past. Bird, for instance, wasnt playing in the pros until he was 22. He turned 23 just two months into his rookie year. By that age, LeBron had already played in three All-Star Games and scored over 8,000 points. Bryant, who actually debuted at an even younger age than James, wasnt an immediate starter. Per Sean Deveney of TheSportingNews: No one has ever logged the kind of minutes James has in such a compressed amount of time. High school players were only draft eligible from 1995 through the 2005 draft, and those who were picked before James and went on to become the biggest preps-to-pros stars were coddled in their first years. They weren’t put through the NBA grinder from the get-go. Kobes game and minute totals come closest to LeBrons, and though he trails LBJ in the MVP tally, his four pre-30 rings stand out. Johnson, of course, had the benefit of joining a ready-made dynasty. Great as he was in his 20s, Magics incredible supporting cast, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was a huge factor in his five championships. On balance, James measures up extremely well against the games best. Weve kept advanced stats out of the discussion in order to focus on more basic indicators of greatness, but its worth mentioning that only Jordans pre-30 player efficiency rating tops his, per Basketball-Reference. In terms of peak years, James 2008-09 season featured a PER of 31.7, which ties Jordans 1987-88 campaign for the second-highest figure of all time. His Airness and King James pulled off those feats at the matching age of 24. Knowing where James stands now, at this pivotal point in his career, the logical thing to ask is this: Hows he going to hold up as he crosses the post-30 threshold? Heres what Jordan, Bird, Johnson and Bryant did after 30. There are asterisks aplenty here: Birds back betrayed him, Jordan took a baseball hiatus, and Magics career essentially ended (except for a 32-game comeback in 1996) at age 32 because of his HIV positive diagnosis. Kobe is still piling up the stats, but he lost nearly all of the 2013-14 season to injury. Even he is showing signs of relenting in his defiant battle against Father Time. Per Baxter Holmes of ESPN, Bryant explained why he opted to rest instead of playing a high-profile Christmas Day game against the Chicago Bulls: Old age. My knees are sore at this stage of the season. My Achilles are sore—both of them. My metatarsals are tight, back is tight. I just need to kind of hit the re-set button. There are two ways to view whats ahead for James. On the one hand, we can take his built-to-age game and achievements thus far—most of which put him on pace with or ahead of the best players weve ever seen—and conclude LBJ is going to blow past his predecessors. When you toss in the fact that hes surrounded himself with a pair of young talents in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and that his presence in Cleveland should attract more championship chasers in the future, James outlook gets even brighter. On the other hand, we cant ignore the mileage on LeBrons odometer. Hes played almost 3,000 more regular-season minutes than Bryant had at the same age. Hes nearly 12,000 minutes ahead of Jordans pace. His edge on Johnson and Bird is approximately 8,000 and 9,000 minutes, respectively. Even more concerning: James has already logged 6,717 postseason minutes. When Kobe hit 30, hed only played 5,948. Its true that conditioning regimens, nutrition and medical technology have advanced since the days of Jordan, Magic and Bird, but the human body can only stand up to so much punishment. As James progresses into his 30s, hes going to test the limits of NBA longevity. Decline is inevitable, and even if the playing-time demands on James someday resemble the ultra-conservative approach the San Antonio Spurs are employing with Tim Duncan, theres still the unpleasant possibility of a serious injury. James has been lucky in that regard so far; hes never missed more than eight games in any season. In terms of body type, hes essentially Karl Malone—an iron man who lasted 19 years and played a whopping 54,852 minutes, the second-highest total in history. Perhaps weve been using the wrong players as comparisons. Maybe the Mailman is the best historical analog. If James staves off injury and breakdown into his mid-30s, well know for sure. Ultimately, LeBrons individual performance to this point has been as good (and in some instances, better) than any superstar to have come before him. In terms of team achievements, his two rings put him behind the pack. But with five trips to the NBA Finals so far, LeBrons shortcomings in that regard have been by inches—not miles. Theres also a strong case to be made for championships being a relatively unimportant measurement of a players greatness. His 20s have been truly remarkable. Chasing history and fending off age, James 30s are going to be even more intriguing. 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Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:12:20 +0000