Dr Spaceman wrote:KTM_2813 wrote:Mos_Heat wrote:0 dunks in 2 pre-szn games
I've seen a lot of comments like this over the past few years, where people express disappointment or even surprise that LeBron isn't all that athletic anymore. Genuinely not trying to be a douche here (throwing an And-1 your way as a sign of good faith), but I don't really understand the sadness. At his age, it's inevitable that LeBron will probably be playing old-man ball for the remainder of his career. Doesn't mean he won't be great, but it will just be in a different way.
I feel like every season even well into the regular season we have posts about his steep athletic decline and then when he actually starts caring he all of a sudden looks like he’s 23 again and is uncorking dunks left and right.
This has been a topic since his early Miami days. Back early in the 2014 season people thought he was done athletically, lol. I mean it’s pretty inexplicable but he does this every year.
I mean ita a fair question to ask though. Athleticism is not a thing that, when it starts declining, disappears overnight. Especially among the super elite like LeBron. If a guy is a peak athlete at 27, he may in actuality be declining at 28 but the results are so infinitesimal at that point that they can be ignored.
Decline seems to affect both peak performance and endurance and they seem (in my opinion) have two different curves. LeBron I think has been a good example of this; we saw what he looked like at 24-25 years old. Head above the rim dunks, quick enough laterally to keep up with guards, beating basically everyone down the court in transition. I think in his 30s we've definitely not seen it to that degree, even though at times we still see him go on full.court sprints and throw down some nasty jams. Those high gear moments can still be high, but the time in between those moments is increasing with age. I mean this is just a logical opinion to have because it happens to every human being and is also noticeable with LeBron now as well.
So I think most people are in anticipation of what is inevitable. I think many of us are curious about how gracefully it will happen with King James because of how high he peaked and how impressive his longevity has seemed to now. How effective will he be when the frequency of those high gear plays decreases even more? I personally dont ever expect to see a NBA LeBron that is outside the top 10-15 players but one never knows these things for certain. If LeBron makes it to 40 years old and is still a top 10-15 player, that would be an outstanding athletic achievement.
