Greatest two seasons by a player that were 15 years apart

[Hook_Em]

(Only the two seasons)

Is it as simple as LeBrons 2008 & 2023?

[70sFan]

It's either 1970 and 1985 Kareem or 1971 and 1986 Kareem to me.

[Whopper_Sr]

99 and 14 Duncan?

[lessthanjake]

It's either 1970 and 1985 Kareem or 1971 and 1986 Kareem to me.

Yeah I think that’s a good one. Leaving aside LeBron (who has already been mentioned), I think Duncan has a pretty good shout for this too though. You could either use 1998/2013 or 1999/2014. The former is all-NBA first-team both years, leading a genuinely really good team both years. The latter is best in the league one year, and winning a title both years.

Honorable mentions probably go to Dirk Nowitzki (2001/2016), Kevin Garnett (1998/2013), Chris Paul (2008/2023), Karl Malone (1988/2003) and John Stockton (1988/2003).

[Jaivl]

LeBron? Kareem? Too boring.

Ricky Rubio 2005 (debuts as a pro) - 2020 (leads Phoenix to a perfect postseason record after winning Worlds MVP)

[DraymondGold]

Agreed it's probably LeBron or Kareem, although a few other players are worth a shoutout. For LeBron, I would probably want 09+24 over 08+23. There's a real jump in 2009, and I don't see as much of a falloff in 24.

Depends a bit on your criteria. If it's championship odds, then if you can get a player even playing at all 15 years after an all-time/GOAT level season, that starts to be a really strong candidate, even if the older year is quite pedestrian. Just because of how championship odds seem to go up exponentially as your best player gets better, peak years get weighted much more than worse years. For example, even though 03 Jordan is nothing to hype up, I would lean 88 Jordan + 03 Jordan over quite a lot of guys who have a reputation for better longevity... Dirk (01 /16), Garnett 98/13, Paul 08/23, Malone 88/03, Stockton 88/03... just because of how much significantly better 88 Jordan is than all the other candidates, even if the older years all go against Jordan.

But yeah, 09-24 LeBron seems like the obvious candidate, with an option for 70-85 Kareem and 71-86 Kareem.

[Cavsfansince84]

I think a 15 yr gap makes it sort of only between LeBron and Kareem or maybe Duncan(I'd go with Kareem due to the amount of games LeBron started missing after 2020). 8 or 10 years apart might be a more interesting debate to have.

[Owly]

Agreed it's probably LeBron or Kareem, although a few other players are worth a shoutout. For LeBron, I would probably want 09+24 over 08+23. There's a real jump in 2009, and I don't see as much of a falloff in 24.

Depends a bit on your criteria. If it's championship odds, then if you can get a player even playing at all 15 years after an all-time/GOAT level season, that starts to be a really strong candidate, even if the older year is quite pedestrian. Just because of how championship odds seem to go up exponentially as your best player gets better, peak years get weighted much more than worse years. For example, even though 03 Jordan is nothing to hype up, I would lean 88 Jordan + 03 Jordan over quite a lot of guys who have a reputation for better longevity... Dirk (01 /16), Garnett 98/13, Paul 08/23, Malone 88/03, Stockton 88/03... just because of how much significantly better 88 Jordan is than all the other candidates, even if the older years all go against Jordan.

But yeah, 09-24 LeBron seems like the obvious candidate, with an option for 70-85 Kareem and 71-86 Kareem.

Doesn't matter because it's more parlor/barber talk than something too deep...

But I would imagine most would frame it more around the weaker season than anything purely cumulative otherwise it is just who gets good reasonably quickly and has a long career.

If it were that I think Gilmore would have had at least mention by now (72-87) and probably more. And he can get a long list mention because heck anyone having a career that long and playing that many minutes that far apart is doing well. But the back end year ... he's fallen off by that point.

Jordan is an interesting mention. I think others rightly have the longevity credit because Jordan missed so many years, but a worthwhile mention.


After LeBron, Kareem; then Stockton, Duncan, K Malone, Jordan, Nowitzki, Paul, KD ...

Just throwing some mostly older names out there ...

You're looking at lower tier than most or all the above but Parish ... has options (the sixteen year 77-93 looks solid). Moses 77-92 ... neither year is in that high level MVP contention strong prime, but then there's a bunch of other productive seasons.

Lower level again but for a player who never hit a 20 PER 87-2002 Kevin Willis looks solidly productive (if you can live with the non-passing).

Havlicek has seasons 15 years apart book-ending his career. The box numbers aren't great (flattered slightly by minutes). The box numbers aren't great but those don't tend to define Havlicek. If you think the non-box stuff is there from start to finish. Book-end Barkley (85-2000) is another player just possible to mention, more box-productive though his first and last seasons are notably lower than 2nd and penultimate.

[Top10alltime]

The two absolute lock tier 1 GOAT players, Lebron (08/23, 06/21) or Kareem (70/85, 71/86).

[lessthanjake]

Another honorable mention may be Julius Erving. His rookie ABA season and his last NBA season were 15 years apart, and he was a genuinely great player in his rookie year and still pretty good in his final year.

Also Durant 2010/2025 is a really good one too IMO (Owly already mentioned him, so this is not an original thought).

Magic Johnson is actually kind of an interesting one. He’s definitely not a top-tier answer here, but he did play in 1996 and was actually still a very good player. His 1981/1996 combo actually has BPMs of 8.8 and 5.2. It wasn’t a great playoffs from him in 1981 and obviously 1996 was just a bit of a weird abbreviated comeback for him, but I do think he was a genuinely really good player in both years.

[iggymcfrack]

Seems pretty easily 2009 and 2024 LeBron. You get the single best season of all-time and a sneaky top 5 season where he was 2nd in the league in postseason BPM.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Seems pretty easily 2009 and 2024 LeBron. You get the single best season of all-time and a sneaky top 5 season where he was 2nd in the league in postseason BPM.

I don't think LeBron was a Top 5 player last year.

Jokic
Tatum
SGA
ANT
Haliburton
Giannis

I don't see real arguments for LeBron over these guys.

Mentioning a 5-game post-season sample for being Top 5 in BPM is short-sighted. At least mention he was 7th in regular season VORP and 8th in BPM.

[lessthanjake]

In terms of the best duo of years for LeBron, if you want to go with the maximum total value across the two years, then 2009/2024 is probably the answer. It’s largely on the back of how good 2009 was though. If one wanted to think about this as assessing which duo of years has the least weak link in it, then I think the answer would be 2006/2021 or 2008/2023, since I think LeBron was better in both 2006 and 2021 as well as both 2008 and 2023 than he was in 2024. Not sure one approach is strictly better than the other in a very subjective exercise like this, but I do think they lead to different answers (both for LeBron and between other players).

In any event, I will say that I think Duncan 1999/2014 might be the best answer, especially if we’re truly talking about “greatness.” If we compare to 2009/2024 LeBron and 1971/1986 Kareem (which are probably the two other main contenders here), I think each player has one incredible year here where they were the league’s best player (1971 Kareem; 1999 Duncan; 2009 LeBron). 1999 Duncan probably performed the least well of these amazing years, but he did get a title out of it, so it’s not far behind in terms of “greatness” IMO. And then we get to the later years for these guys—1986 Kareem, 2014 Duncan, and 2024 LeBron. These guys were probably about equally good as players in general in those seasons, but Duncan won a title that year while still being a star player (albeit one with relatively low minutes on an ensemble cast), while the 1986 Lakers got decidedly upset in the conference finals and the 2024 Lakers got gentleman swept in the first round. I suspect if you asked NBA players which duo of years they’d want to add to their career, they’d choose 1999/2014 Duncan, even if he probably wasn’t strictly the best player on average across those years (I’d probably have both LeBron and Kareem above him in that assessment, albeit not by a huge amount).

[iggymcfrack]

Seems pretty easily 2009 and 2024 LeBron. You get the single best season of all-time and a sneaky top 5 season where he was 2nd in the league in postseason BPM.

I don't think LeBron was a Top 5 player last year.

Jokic
Tatum
SGA
ANT
Haliburton
Giannis

I don't see real arguments for LeBron over these guys.

Mentioning a 5-game post-season sample for being Top 5 in BPM is short-sighted. At least mention he was 7th in regular season VORP and 8th in BPM.

Aren’t 7th and 8th pretty close to top 5 for a 39 year old who was saving himself for the playoffs? My top 5 for 23/24 was:

1. Joker
2. SGA
3. Luka
4. Brunson
5. LeBron

FWIW since you mentioned RS BPM and VORP, here’s where your other candidates finished by that measure:

Tatum: 14th, 10th
ANT: 32nd, 18th
Hali: 5th, 5th (postseason injury)
Giannis: 3rd, 3rd (DQed for me due to his 4th postseason injury in 5 playoffs with 3 of them completely debilitating)

[Djoker]

Probably Kareem 1971/1986. The first is one of his peak seasons and one of the greatest seasons by any player ever and the second was probably the best any player ever played at age 38/39. 2009/2024 Lebron is close but I'd go with Kareem.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Seems pretty easily 2009 and 2024 LeBron. You get the single best season of all-time and a sneaky top 5 season where he was 2nd in the league in postseason BPM.

I don't think LeBron was a Top 5 player last year.

Jokic
Tatum
SGA
ANT
Haliburton
Giannis

I don't see real arguments for LeBron over these guys.

Mentioning a 5-game post-season sample for being Top 5 in BPM is short-sighted. At least mention he was 7th in regular season VORP and 8th in BPM.

Aren’t 7th and 8th pretty close to top 5 for a 39 year old who was saving himself for the playoffs? My top 5 for 23/24 was:

1. Joker
2. SGA
3. Luka
4. Brunson
5. LeBron

FWIW since you mentioned RS BPM and VORP, here’s where your other candidates finished by that measure:

Tatum: 14th, 10th
ANT: 32nd, 18th
Hali: 5th, 5th (postseason injury)
Giannis: 3rd, 3rd (DQed for me due to his 4th postseason injury in 5 playoffs with 3 of them completely debilitating)

You are really holding an injury against Haliburton who was injured mid-way through the NBA Finals when LeBron only played 5 games in the post-season?

I picked the only stat which values LeBron highly. RAPM, +/-, most other box-score composites do not view LeBron as bein close to Top 5 in 2025. I was doing you a favor

Edit: I thought this was 2025, not 2024

[lessthanjake]

I don't think LeBron was a Top 5 player last year.

Jokic
Tatum
SGA
ANT
Haliburton
Giannis

I don't see real arguments for LeBron over these guys.

Mentioning a 5-game post-season sample for being Top 5 in BPM is short-sighted. At least mention he was 7th in regular season VORP and 8th in BPM.

Aren’t 7th and 8th pretty close to top 5 for a 39 year old who was saving himself for the playoffs? My top 5 for 23/24 was:

1. Joker
2. SGA
3. Luka
4. Brunson
5. LeBron

FWIW since you mentioned RS BPM and VORP, here’s where your other candidates finished by that measure:

Tatum: 14th, 10th
ANT: 32nd, 18th
Hali: 5th, 5th (postseason injury)
Giannis: 3rd, 3rd (DQed for me due to his 4th postseason injury in 5 playoffs with 3 of them completely debilitating)

You are really holding an injury against Haliburton who was injured mid-way through the NBA Finals when LeBron only played 5 games in the post-season?

I picked the only stat which values LeBron highly. RAPM, +/-, most other box-score composites do not view LeBron as bein close to Top 5 in 2025. I was doing you a favor

To be fair, he’s talking about 2023-24, which is not the year the Pacers made the Finals but is still a year where Haliburton got injured in the playoffs. That said, it was still in the conference finals, which is two rounds past where LeBron got to, so I suppose your point largely still stands (though the Pacers were beneficiaries of some pretty unhealthy teams in the first two rounds that year).

[benson13]

05 LeBron - The first player to average 27-7-7 since MJ in 89. Sure, Jordan average 32-8-8, but LeBron was 20 and it was a sign of things to come.
20 LeBron - Second season in LA, and he wins an NBA title.

Michael Jordan in 87 and 02.

LeBron probably has the first three of four of these though. He turned 19 as a rookie, was good in his sophomore season, and has had incredible longevity. If you cut his career into two, you've got two hall of fame careers. I don't call him the GOAT, but there's really nobody else who has played MVP level basketball 15 years apart.

[lessthanjake]

05 LeBron - The first player to average 27-7-7 since MJ in 89. Sure, Jordan average 32-8-8, but LeBron was 20 and it was a sign of things to come.
20 LeBron - Second season in LA, and he wins an NBA title.

Michael Jordan in 87 and 02.

LeBron probably has the first three of four of these though. He turned 19 as a rookie, was good in his sophomore season, and has had incredible longevity. If you cut his career into two, you've got two hall of fame careers. I don't call him the GOAT, but there's really nobody else who has played MVP level basketball 15 years apart.

Kareem was 3rd and 4th in MVP voting 15 years apart (1970 and 1985). In the year he was 3rd, the top 3 vote getters were all close and Kareem got a lot of 1st place votes. In the year he was 4th in MVP voting he wasn’t close in the MVP vote, but he went on to win Finals MVP. I would say this qualifies as playing MVP level basketball 15 years apart.

Duncan was also 5th and 7th in MVP voting 15 years apart. I wouldn’t really say he was playing at an MVP level in 2013 though (though he was all-NBA first team), so he probably doesn’t qualify as playing MVP-level basketball 15 years apart.

LeBron’s best duos of years in terms of MVP voting were 6th and 2nd (2005/2020) and 2nd and 13th (2006/2021). I wouldn’t really say 2005 LeBron was playing at an MVP level though, so 2006/2021 is probably the best shout for him despite the MVP finishes looking better in 2005/2020. He was a real MVP contender in 2006, and was a contender in 2021 too until missing too many games. I wouldn’t say that’s any closer to MVP-level basketball 15 years apart than 1970/1985 Kareem though.