3 days Ago By Bleacher Report NBA Staff
Imagine calling LeBron James washed. Even as the four-time champion and MVP turns 40, the idea that he could be just a shell of himself remains absurd. Is he on the decline? Uh, probably.
He's 40. He's in Year 21. Time erodes performance.
That's how this works. And yet, we would be misguided if we didn't couch "LeBron is declining" with a big ol' "probably." We can't just assume anything.
Not with him. People have previously wondered whether he was showing signs of real, serious decline only to see their sentiments upended by LeBron's greatest superpower: disregard for time. And as we once again contemplate whether the end is near, if not believe it's outright here, it's worth revisiting those instances of doubt from years past.
This list of certifiably arctic-cold takes will be populated by various media members and NBA writers. Inclusion is not always meant as denigration. The range of LeBron skepticism will vary in scope and scale, some of these thoughts were legitimate talking points at the time, and most importantly, any commentary we add to each is all in good, at times snarky, never personal fun.
Following the Golden State Warriors' 110-77 butt-whooping of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals, Colin Cowherd compared LeBron James, then 31, to a pitcher who no longer possesses his fastball: It is safe to say this analogy has aged...
poorly. Not only did the Cavs go on to win the next game and eventually come back from a 3-1 hole to bag the title. But since these comments, LeBron has added two championships, two Finals MVPs, the all-time-scoring belt and eight All-NBA team to his resume.
And he's still kicking. Then-head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers Doc Rivers had some not-at-all controversial praise for LeBron James during a 2016 appearance on The Dan Patrick Show: "But LeBron, statistically, championship-wise, he's one of the top-five players to ever play the game." Considering that the "MJ or LeBron?" GOAT debate is now ingrained into the fabric of our society, this qualifies as, like, a lukewarm endorsement of the obvious.
Unless you're Skip Bayless. Then of FS1, he offered the following response to Doc's comments: "I'm looking at the top five, and I say, there's no way LeBron James belongs above, I'll just throw out five players to you: Michael Jordan, enough said. Magic Johnson, enough said.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, six rings and six MVPs. Ehhhh, I think we'll let that rest. Bill Russell, 11 rings in 12 tries.
That's pretty great. And then, my man Tim Duncan, five rings with only one Finals loss to a man who just announced his official retirement, Ray Allen, who saved LeBron's legacy, by hitting the greatest clutch shot I've ever seen." To say this at any point is performative theatre.
To say it after LeBron had just overthrown the dynastic Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, successfully erasing a 3-1 series deficit, and delivered the greatest block in NBA history? Well, that's a special brand of disingenuity-for-hire. A groin strain that ultimately limited James to 55 games in 2018-19, his lowest total to that point in his career, opened up the floor for doomsayers. Gabe Zaldivar, writing for Forbes , gets massive credit for adding caveats to his concerns.
After noting that "James' injury reminds us of life's greatest lesson: Papa Time comes calling for even the healthiest of players," he predicted rough days ahead for James and Los Angeles "unless Anthony Davis suddenly declares his love for the Lakers." Davis would do exactly that, and James would get healthy enough to lead the league in assists and make the All-NBA first team the following season, which ended with a championship. In what will go down historically as "The Hezonja Incident," James looked less than superhuman on a massive stage.
Coming off the injury that cost him so much time earlier in the year and playing out the string for a Lakers team that would fail to make the playoffs, LeBron still had a chance to add an iconic moment to his career ledger. Down one with the ball in Madison Square Garden as the final seconds ticked away, James attacked Mario Hezonja in isolation and suffered the indignity of getting his shot swatted by a player who'd already earned a "draft bust" designation. "It was something we'd never seen before," Nate Scot wrote for USA Today .
"Not really. And it reflects LeBron transitioning to a new part of his career: That of the mere mortal. What does that mean? It means the normal laws of basketball now apply to him.
" James would regroup and win his fifth ring the following year. Hezonja, who pointed and laughed at LeBron, would be out of the league a year later. On the heels of the Lakers missing the 2019 NBA playoffs, Max Kellerman, then of ESPN, spoke about how the then-35-year-old LeBron James is "not really in the regular season MVP conversation that much anymore" because he conserves himself for the very postseason he just missed.
He then wondered whether LeBron was running out of time to be that postseason version of himself. "Here's the problem: By the time he has the chance to show the LeBron James [of] the playoffs, at best it's going to be a full year from now. So another year of wear and tear on a 35-year-old, and we haven't seen him [in the playoffs] since he was 33.
" After trading for Anthony Davis, the Lakers would go on to win the championship the very next season. And LeBron, at the age of 35, would take home his fourth NBA Finals MVP. The Hezonja Incident had real legs, sparking concerns from Dan Devine of The Ringer as well.
Devine chronicled the state of James' game with the appropriate caveats, noting that James, who'd miss the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, might "take advantage of all that extra time to rest up, and come back in September rejuvenated ...
better equipped to carry the load for the Lakers." Devine concluded his piece with what was a common tone of concern in the moment. "But as this titanically disappointing season draws to a close, the fear that lives on the flip side of that hope looms ever larger—that the best days of one of the best players ever are already behind him, and that he'll never reach those heights again in a Lakers uniform.
" Amid a coaching search that saw them get spurned by now-Los Angeles Clippers head honcho Tyronn Lue, the Lakers' rumor mill reached zany levels of unhinged. As ESPN's Stephen A. Smith reported at the time during a SportsCenter segment: "You've got folks close to [Lakers team governor] Jeanie Buss imploring her to trade LeBron James.
" Oof size: gigantically ginormous. This isn't quite a "LeBron is washed" case study. But you wouldn't be "imploring" the Lakers to trade him one season into his tenure if you thought his career was trending in the right direction.
As it turns out, LeBron's career since then has panned out just fine. It has included finger jewelry and a leap-frogging of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and everything. After dropping a triple-double in a win over the Chicago Bulls, at the age of 34, LeBron James quote-tweeted a graphic from the Los Angeles Lakers' official account with the now-notorious: "#WashedKing 👑🤫" tagline.
This is the hashtag that spawned a movement—a rush to dispel the notions of the many, many, many talking heads and itty-bitty blogpeople who were declaring LeBron finished at the start of Year 17. Here's the thing: Yahoo Sports' Ben Rohrbach found at the time that nobody of repute ever called James "washed." Is this a Straw Man masterclass from LeBron? A nod to his obsession with Father Time ? Did he simply visit corners of the internet typically avoided by anyone who gives a darn about their mental health? Either way, the Washed King may be the author of his own origin story.
Skip Bayless has a reputation in large quarters of the NBA community as someone who's always thinking about LeBron James even if the future Hall of Famer isn't front and center. This little doozy does nothing to help his case: To be fair, LeBron's Lakers had just lost to Phoenix in the first round. To be even more fair, the implication that James was somehow a failure, not ready for the moment or tracking towards less relevance because he couldn't get past the eventual Western Conference champion is extremely cringe.
And as for what's happened to LeBron since, he has just, you know, scooped up another three All-NBA appearances. As LeBron James was finishing off an absence-laden 2020-21, he told the media he probably would not be at 100 percent health ever again. Max Kellerman, then of ESPN, argued this was LeBron's way of telling us he had entered decline: While LeBron has still battled some availability issues in the years since, he followed up 2020-21 with the third 30-points-per-game average of his career in 2021-22.
And then last season, his age-39 campaign, he missed just 11 games. Sure, LeBron may no longer be Peak LeBron anymore. But his decline has never—and still doesn't—typify the actual spirit of regression.
His downticks have been incremental, oft-barely visible. And if the 2024-25 season stands as his most drastic slippage yet, it only drives that point further home. LeBron James missed 27 games during the 2020-21 season.
Then, to start the 2021-22 campaign, he missed 12 of the Lakers' first 23 games. This prompted Joe Wolfond of The Score to write: "But in Year 19, as he approaches his 37th birthday, with 61,496 regular-season and playoff minutes to his name (only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has more), it's become much more difficult to make that case [that a fully healthy LeBron is still the NBA's best player]. This is because the notion of a fully healthy LeBron feels increasingly unrealistic and because his play when he's been available hasn't come close to warranting it.
" LeBron has not really challenged for the best-player-alive crown during this stretch. But he's made an All-NBA team in every season since, including that one, suggesting he's consistently ranked among the top 15. More than that, considering LeBron went on to play in 71 regular-season games a couple years later, in 2023-24, the notion of his availability becoming a stark problem rings hollow.
After hitting nine threes and scoring 40 points to down the Brooklyn Nets late last season, James was asked how much longer he'd play. "Not very long," he told reporters . "I'm on the other side, obviously, of the hill.
" He went on to offer some context, which felt somewhat falsely modest in the aftermath of a 40-spot: "So I'm not going to play another 21 years, that's for damn sure. But not very long. I don't know what or when that door will close as far as when I retire, but I don't have much time left.
" Still, any mention of being over the hill fits our criteria—even when it comes from the guy who was at the top of it for so long. Earlier this season, LeBron James turned in 16 points and four assists on 3-of-14 shooting from the floor as the Lakers fell to the Phoenix Suns. Though it was just Los Angeles' first loss, this marked the self-proclaimed Washed King's worst performance from the field in nearly two decades: "The Lakers are playing great," wrote Jeremy Kruger of Last Word On Sports.
"James has been solid, besides his performance on Monday. Although at his age, Lakers fans will likely get more performances like Monday's. Although James has gotten most of the credit for the Lakers' success, Anthony Davis has been the Lakers' best player since joining the team.
" Declaring AD as the team's MVP for the past half-decade is a massive stretch. LeBron has a finals MVP during this time. The Lakers are also a net negative over this span in AD's solo minutes, according to PBP Stats .
By comparison, they are a plus-3.5 points per 100 possessions when LeBron goes it alone. That's with this season factored into the equation.
And as for expecting more personal-worstish nights, well, James delivered a 4-of-16 outing in a Dec. 2 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. But he's still shooting at one of his higher clips from both inside and outside the arc for the season.
In a mailbag following LeBron James' 4-of-16 clunker against Minnesota, Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated was asked how he felt about the 21-year veteran's start to the season: "The short answer to your question is that James, approaching 40, remains among the 25 best players in the NBA. But a quarter into the season, you can definitely see signs, or in some cases a continuation, of decline. "Some erosion I see defensively.
In spurts, James can still dial it up; I watched him do it a few times against the Oklahoma City Thunder, when he was switched onto Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But possession-to-possession, he's not the same defensive player..
.Offensively, I'm seeing him rely more on physicality than athleticism. Again, he can still dial it up—the posterizing of Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac last month is a good example—but he's not regularly playing above the rim.
" Critiques of LeBron's dipping defense are spot-on—and have been for some time. But the concern about him still being able to dial it up more than occasionally is worth monitoring when he's averaging about the same number of drives per game as last season and dunking about as often as Jayson Tatum. Apparently, when the most ageless NBA player of all time goes through a shooting slump right around his 40th birthday, it incites far-flung concern about how to interpret what we are watching.
Sam Amico of Hoops Wire also tackled the LeBron James decline following his 4-of-16 nightmare in Minnesota: "LeBron James is in the middle of one of the worst shooting slumps of his career, and it's starting to feel like we're seeing a glimpse of what comes next...
Look, it's LeBron—we know he's going to have great games mixed in. But at 39 years old, the inevitable decline is starting to show. He's still better than most players in the league, but the margin between him and his peers is narrowing.
..The Lakers have to figure out how to manage that moving forward, because it's clear LeBron won't be able to carry the load the way he has for so long.
" Your move, LeBron..
