At the age of 39 years and 144 days old, LeBron James is now the oldest player to make an All-NBA team. Nineteen years ago, he became the youngest to do it.
Before this season, James was one of only three 38-year-olds to make an All-NBA team, along with Tim Duncan in the 2014-15 season and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1985-86. Duncan and Abdul-Jabbar both have April birthdays and James was born in December, so James didn’t take the title of oldest ever until this season.
James was All-NBA last year as well, and for the last 20 seasons, but he was even better than usual this season. He played 71 games, his most in six seasons while shooting a career-high 41 percent from three-point range and upping his assists to 8.3 per game. James also helped the Los Angeles Lakers to a win in the inaugural in-season tournament, though we doubt the Lakers will raise a banner for that one.
The only record that seems out of James’ reach, after passing Abdul-Jabbar for the scoring title last season, is the title of youngest player to make an All-NBA team.
James was younger than fellow 20-year-old Kobe Bryant and Carl Braun when he made his first All-NBA team in 2005, but Luka Doncic was two months younger than James in 2020 for his own first All-NBA berth.
Doncic was named to his fifth-straight All-NBA first team this season. He only has to do it eight more times to tie James’ whopping 13 All-NBA first teams. To tie James’ 20 overall selections, Doncic just has 15 short seasons to go. That sounds ridiculous, but so is the length of James’ extended dominance.
