He should retire.
LeBron James loves messing with that nemesis named Father Time. Just watch him. Any time he’s asked about his longevity or how he’s rewriting the possibilities for someone his age, his eyes will dance in anticipation. His mouth will curl into a confident grin. He’ll eagerly await the end of the question, just so that he can windmill dunk on his old rival.
“I’m in a battle with him,” James said, ahead of his 41st birthday, referring to Father Time. “Um, and I would like to say that I’m kicking his (rear end) on the back nine.”
LeBron’s winning, for sure. He’s up big, and at this point in his career, he’s even running up the score. Did you see that ‘80s baby in the first round of the playoffs, crippling some marble statue that looked awfully similar to Kevin Durant, and throwing down a reverse dunk? That man is for-ty ONE!
Time — nor the Rockets’ defense, for that matter — can’t stop LeBron. Still, if he truly wants to defeat the most undefeated foe once and for all, James should retire.
For so long, LeBron has picked out the biggest, baddest bully known to every athlete, Time, and made it bow to his whims. Even so, he should leave while he’s ahead and still capable of blowing our minds — but before he makes us wonder why this balding, graying old dude in shorts can’t stop anyone on defense… or why he can’t finish at the rim through traffic … or why he can’t lead a franchise back to a championship despite being the recipient of one of the highest salaries in the league.
We won’t have to disparage the end of LeBron’s career, however, if he actually decides to end his career.
Has any superstar athlete beaten Father Time? Not really. In a sport that has ruined a great number of bodies, Barry Sanders and Jim Brown, great as they were, bowed out early before they experienced the slow descent from their peaks. Tom Brady played into his 40s and even passed for 4,694 yards and 25 touchdowns in his final year, but I challenge anyone to find a more joyless season of “greatness.” Brady starred as the miserable Man in the Arena, and for what? For his Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go 8-9 and lose in the wild-card game? Seems like the better play would’ve been listening to Giselle.
Also, in a game that requires the quick twitch of athleticism, Kobe Bryant, post-surgically repaired Achilles, never looked the same while languishing on a Lakers team that never won more than 27 games in his final three years. Michael Jordan averaged 20 points and made the All-Star team in his curtain call at 39 years old, but his reboot with the Washington Wizards ended ingloriously without a postseason appearance. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who once owned the all-time scoring record, played until he was 41, but judging by the decline of his production, he should’ve taken up tai chi by age 38.
Brady, Jordan … LeBron. He belongs at their lunch table and deserves to feast where only the GOATs can graze. Yet, he can surpass them and accomplish the one thing that not even the game changers of sport could. All he has to do now is sit down.
At the conclusion of the Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round series victory over Houston, James was sitting … and bragging. When James joined the NBA on Prime show following the win, studio host Taylor Rooks lobbed up a question about Father Time.
“Oh, I’m kicking his (bum),” James said, cheerfully and dismissively. “He can go to somebody else at this point; he already lost to me. It’s over with.”
Udonis Haslem, James’ former teammate, could be heard in the background cheering him on.
“Keep going,” Haslem encouraged.
James has kept it going, to an extent. He continues to make plenty of highlights, but he no longer possesses the high-octane energy to carry a roster on his 41-year-old back. Next season, he would benefit from having a more whole team, including a healthy Luka Dončić, around him, but logic — and the eye test — tells us more decline is coming.
There’s a part of me that’s just like Haslem and wants to see James play on. After 23 years, an NBA without LeBron James would just feel … weird. The day LeBron retires will be a sad one, because it feels as though he’s always been around.
James was the bridge from the Kobe-Shaq and Spurs years. Then, as he took control, he seamlessly navigated the league into its next era with superteams ruling the land, and players showing their power. LeBron hasn’t done everything perfectly — and considering how he pump-faked his retirement ahead of this season, using it as a ploy to sell liquor, he still hasn’t learned that saying “I’m going to take my talents to …” is never a good way to start a sentence. Yet LeBron hasn’t missed.
He’s lived up to the impossible standards of being a boy king, “The Chosen One,” winning four championships and rewriting history. In a league where the followers closely mimic the leader, he helped usher in a time when NBA athletes remembered that they, too, can be worldly citizens. He opened a school in his hometown and spoke out on social and cultural matters, and he did all this, not as a role player who can hide from media scrutiny, but as the most important figure in his sport.
In this, the twilight of his career, LeBron still has the power. Over the Lakers somewhat — which explains how he can will the franchise into drafting his oldest son — and over Time. But for how long?
He’ll be a free agent this summer, and if he does return to the Lakers, it certainly won’t be for the $52.6 million he made this season. Still, LeBron has options and could play elsewhere.
James enjoys being an athlete and defying what people expect from someone his age, so much so that he clearly spent time crafting that chest-thumping quote he loves to say.
“I’m in a battle with Father Time, and I’m kind of taking it personal,” James said, smirking, after a game in January. “I’m going to see how many more times I can be victorious over him. But I won’t be one of those guys that won’t be able to walk off the court, that’s for sure.”
That night in January, James seemed to understand that this can’t last forever. One day, if he does stick around too long like some other washed-up athletes, then his career will end more melancholy than majestic. For now, he’s winning.
But if he wants to become the first superstar athlete to defeat Father Time, then James should get out now. This isn’t waving the white flag, but rather realizing that Time shouldn’t be tempted.
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