I remember when it clicked for me that LeBron’s rookie year was the Lakers “Dream Team” season with Malone and Payton. Like I remember that season happening in real time and it feels like multiple lifetimes ago. Truly put into perspective for me how long Bron has been in the league.

Here’s another crazy one: LeBron had already played a full season in the league before Michael Phelps won his first gold medal.

During his first pre-season they commemorated the second anniversary of 9-11.

From his draft day onwards he saw Skype get created, become a verb it was so popular, and then get shutdown.

He’s played against Kevin Willis, who was born the year before Kennedy was assassinated, and Cooper Flagg, who was born after the PS3 was released.

Personally, it’s that I’m closer in age to Bronny than I am Lebron… I have a 13 year old daughter btw.

That is kinda wild

He’s also played against a lot of father son duos, not sure on the exact number but it’s a lot. It’ll only increase next year too. 

Kevin Garnett played against Magic Johnson as well as Nikola Jokić

Unfortunately in the 2 games LeBron played against the Lakers before Shaq got traded to Miami, Kobe missed one of those games and Shaq missed the other, so LeBron never played both of them together

LeBron started playing before my oldest child was born. She is now halfway through college.

And Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Horace Grant. Charles Oakley was even still in the league at that time 

He’s played with and against Michael Jordan during runs according to Ron Artest.

He was drafted three months after we invaded Iraq

Youtube wouldn’t be invented for another two years

Ricky Rubio played against Kobe, Lebron, and Jason Kidd in the 2008 Olympics and is younger than Draymond Green. Draymond Green was still in high school when this happened.

That’s not nearly as crazy to me because he played with Shaq and he and Kobe were in the league together for like 13 years.

I would argue that its getting to play with his son

LeBron dominated on three different teams

Yet Kobe Shaq beat up the LeBron cavs

And Michael Jordan played against the Kobe-Shaq Lakers and beat them

Yet there are Redditors who think the 96 Bulls can’t compete against the Magic because the Magic are too athletic lol

LeBron was born closer to the invention of the iPhone than the construction of the pyramids

LeBron is closer to Jesus than Jesus was to the dinosaurs.

In 2045, one of these new guys is going to be a 16-time all star or something, and it will absolutely blow people’s minds that Lebron played with both Karl Malone and AJ Dybantsa (or Peterson or Caleb Wilson or whoever).

LeBrongevity

He played against a guy who was drafted the same year as Barkley, Hakeem, Jordan, Stockton…

LeBron James started his NBA career before the creation of YouTube, the iPhone, Victor Wembanyama, Google Maps, the independent state of Kosovo, Mountain Dew Baja Blast, Four Loko, and Shrek 2.

Yall have never heard of Jagr lol

Had already finished 2nd MVP voting behind Nash when Flagg was born too lol

Ok this one got me. Wtf. I want a compilation of all these stats, and I hope some reporter tells Bron all of these in a presscon before he retires, lmao.

It helps that Curry got off to a relatively slow start (compared to what he became), missed most of this third season with injury, didn’t really start to get going till his fourth season, and finally made All-Star (and 2nd team All-NBA) in his fifth season in 2014 just one season before his breakout MVP season in 2015. But yeah, regardless, still a crazy fact.

These stats comparing him to other old guys are the craziest to me. Lebron had played for a decade and won 4 MVPs before Steph was an all star or Giannis had even been drafted. Lebron scored 8439 points before Kevin Durant was drafted, and 12,993 points before Curry was drafted. Lebron was already in the top 50 of all time scoring when Rudy Gobert was drafted.

People lump lebron, KD and Steph because they’re the remaining all star uncs, but Lebron already won an MVP before Steph was even drafted.

My fav is him having played against 14 father-son duos

That feels crazy

ya me too - gotta respect the longevity but this one is not that crazy

When did they play in the same team?

People grew up watching tatum

See, this one doesnt seem that bad to me because you can say you grew up watching guys who were like, 7 years older than you. Like, Cam Boozer was 12 when Zion was a rookie.

What if you put it another way

Kevin Willis was drafted in 1984. He played against Kareem, who was the last active player from the 1960s. Kareem’s career overlapped with Dick Barnett’s. Barnett retired in 1974 and was the last active player from the 1950s; he also invented the jump shot. Barnett, of course, overlapped with Dolph Schayes, the last active player from the 1940s. Unfortunately, Max Zaslofsky had already retired by then; he was the last remaining player from the first NBA season. So you can get from Lebron to the invention of the jump shot in three degrees of separation, but need five to get to the beginning of the league, I think.

Kevin Willis also played against Moses Malone, the last remaining player from the ABA, and against Tree Rollins, the last player-coach. Willis misses out by one season from playing against Dave Cowens, the last player-head coach (Rollins was an assistant).

During Lebron’s rookie year, he played against Don Chaney’s Knicks; Chaney as a player was the only guy to be teammates with both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. And in his second year, he played with Scott Williams, who was one of MJ’s teammates in Chicago.

the difference is 40 days, how is this obvious?

Not really, unless you already know their exact ages. There are players from the same draft class as Flagg who it wouldn’t be true for.

Flagg is young enough that he may not have grown up watching Space Jam. Space Jam came out in 1996 and Flagg was born in 2006.

LeBron’s Space Jam may have been more influential for Flagg since he was 14 when it came out lol.

No it actually isn’t. Time usually degrades professional athletes’ ability to play at the highest level by the time they are in their forties. LeBron is a literal non-example of how time works, he had a 13 assists near triple double at colonoscopy age

I feel like the “ancient” cutoff is just before MJ. Like Kareem is definitely seen as ancient but Michael Jordan was still Michael Jordan to the Gen Z that didn’t watch him play.

The cutoff is probably either right before or right after the Larry Bird/Magic Johnson era

Damn, LeBron is pretty much a dinosaur at this point.