December 30, 1984. That is the day that LeBron James was born. That means that today (Monday, December 30) is when James has turned 40 years old. It’s always impressive when a professional athlete reaches that age and is still playing as it doesn’t happen often. It is substantially more impressive to be as productive as James is at his advanced age.
The Los Angeles Lakers next game is on Tuesday at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That will be LeBron James’ first game playing at the age of 40.
He will become the 32nd player ever to play at least one game while being 40+ years old.
LeBron James And The 31 Others To Play At 40+ Years Old
Who Was The Oldest Player To Ever Appear In A Game?
You are forgiven if you have never heard of the oldest player to ever play in the league. That would be Nat Hickey. In the 1947-48 season, Hickey (who was the head coach of the Providence Steamrollers) played himself for two games. In the second of those outings, Hickey was just two days shy of his 46th birthday.
Seven-and-a-half decades later, and Hickey is still the only player to ever play past 45. There has been just one other to play at the age of 44. That would be Kevin Willis, who played parts of 21 seasons. The seven-footer played six games in April of 2007 with the Dallas Mavericks.
14 Hall Of Famers (And Counting) Played at 40+
Nearly half of the players who played at 40+ are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Right now, 14 of the 32 are enshrined in Springfield. Of course, LeBron will get in as well as soon as he is eligible. Joe Johnson, not yet eligible, is another possibility. He scored over 20,000 career points and made seven All-Star teams.
The player often brought up along with James in GOAT conversations, Michael Jordan, played at 40 with the Washington Wizards. The man that LeBron passed to become the all-time leading scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, played until he was 42 with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The other Hall of Famers that played at 40+ are Vince Carter, Bob Cousy, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Karl Malone, Dikembe Mutombo, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Robert Parish, and John Stockton.
Those not yet mentioned that played at 40+ are Jamal Crawford, James Edwards, Udonis Haslem, Juwan Howard, Charles Jones, John Long, Rick Mahorn, Andre Miller, Charles Oakley, Clifford Robinson, Danny Schayes, Jason Terry, Kurt Thomas, and Herb Williams.
Oldest Player Record Is One LeBron Likely Won’t Break
In his career, LeBron James has broken numerous NBA records. He will probably break a few more before he calls it a career. Breaking the record of becoming the oldest player to ever appear in a game is one that James likely won’t touch.
In order to be one day older than Nat Hickey, James would have to play on December 29, 2030. It definitely isn’t likely that he will still be playing on that day. While LeBron has seemed to defy Father Time at times, this would be one record that would be surprising to see him eclipse.
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