As a general rule, we make too much of the age thing with older athletes these days. It’s not that it’s not worth a headline or two when an old player (by sports standards) continues to compete at a high level in what is, for the most part, a young man’s game, but it doesn’t need to be so dramatic. We don’t need to bang the “how is this guy still doing this!” drum every time LeBron James or Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry makes a play that is reminiscent of their younger version.
These guys aren’t senior citizens. Athletes stay healthy, and capable, far longer these days. And most of the plays we get all worked up about aren’t actually that crazy, especially not for a player the caliber of the ones just mentioned.
But there are exceptions. Plays that demand you to rub your eyes and refocus on the screen to make sure you weren’t seeing things as you honestly and understandably ponder: “How in the hell is this guy still doing this?” On Wednesday night, LeBron gave us two of them in a two-minute span.
The first came at the 10:53 mark of the second quarter. Marcus Smart had the ball at the top, about 35 feet from the basket, middle of the floor, and Jake LaRavia was setting a screen for LeBron to come around. But instead, he hop-stepped to the high side to get Dorian Finney-Smith anticipating that way, then planted and exploded out the back door into wide open space.
At this point, it was already a great play. The manipulation of his defender. The split-step footwork to reverse his direction on a dime at full force. Every day, coaches all over the world aim to teach this kind of cut. To be this spatially aware away from the ball, to be able to feel the natural flow of the action and attack against the grain, is a powerful and highly underutilized basketball weapon.
That said, you cannot teach what happened next — when Smart’s lob pass appeared headed for the first row only for a 41-year-old gray beard to take off from outside the restricted circle, go into full extension, catch the ball behind his head, cock it, and hammer it home from a head-at-the-rim level in one fluid motion.
LeBron, all things considered, remains a great athlete even by NBA standards. But that right there? That was not old LeBron. That was old LeBron, as in Miami LeBron, as in peak-of-his-powers LeBron. I genuinely came out of my seat and yelled: “How did he do that!” — with the implication, of course, being how did he do that at 41 years old?
As it happened, I barely had time to ponder that question before the man up and did something arguably even more unbelievable a couple minutes later. This time a loose ball wound up in the hands of LaRavia as James ran the floor alongside him. LaRavia shoveled to LeBron as he angled to the basket and took off, legitimately, from the dotted line for another thunder slam over an absolutely helpless Reed Sheppard.
Again, for LeBron to run the floor like that and even to finish with an athletic dunk is not an extraordinary play at this stage of this career. The guy literally leads the league in fast-break points this season. He remains, to a large degree, the runaway-train finisher he has always been when the action breaks the right way for him to get a full head of steam.
But this? A full-extension, long-jump hammer from outside the dotted line? Do you know how powerful you have to be to dunk with that kind of force from that far out? LeBron isn’t 6-foot-11 like Giannis, for example. By the time he reaches the basket he’s on his way down, meaning he had to be well above the rim to start. Just to cover that much ground in the air requires maximum energy expenditure. To have enough force left over to still finish with that kind of authority, at 41 years old, is unbelievable.
And I don’t use that word lightly. Those two dunks, over a two-minute span, were truly unbelievable. How did he do it? Well, for starters, he is and always has been a touched-by-God athlete. When you start out that high, you can decline a fair amount and still be extraordinary.
Beyond that, maybe LeBron is feeling some extra juice with the way the Lakers are playing right now (they beat the Rockets, by the way, on Wednesday and have now won 10 of their last 11 games). Maybe it has something to do with his not having to carry the heaviest load every night anymore, leaving more energy reserves for plays like this. It’s likely a combination of all that.
But whatever the case, LeBron was on one Wednesday night. These two dunks were merely a small part of his 30 points on 13-of-14 shooting. He was sensational. He got to the basket. Drilled both of his 3s. Drove middle and faded to the baseline for a huge bucket late.
These Lakers are for real. Luka Doncic is playing, and shooting, like the player we know is capable of carrying a team to the Finals. Austin Reaves is next in line. When LeBron James, who is still capable of playing like this at 41 years old, gets to be your third-best player, you’re in pretty good shape.
