LABron James Discussion: The Final Year?

I don’t agree, I think LeBron can play for 5 more years if he plays 60 games a year, but plays one or two games a week only. As you get older, getting into professional sport shape isn’t guaranteed any longer, staying in pro shape is much easier and safer for injuries.

But one day you can’t get back into shape. It’s injury after injury instead as you ramp up. The same thing also happens when you’ve had one too many serious injuries - I’ve been on the side of that train, ankle break and then three knee operations into a hip operation and a back operation. Everytime you come back you lose a few percentage points of your max, until one day you can’t even get into top shape.

 

it was semi-encouraging to hear that lebron has come back and played after the sciatica once already--they must have kept that quiet. that timing kind of lines up retrospectively with when i thought he got a little more stiff in his movements, which i can understand based on my own sciatica experience. the kinds of bending and lunging that you do naturally on a basketball court start to kind of signal themselves unconsciously, and you just stop doing it. feel like it impacted me more on defense, when i have to do more reacting.

i'm actually not super worried about lebron offensively. he knows his role has changed, and i think he'll find ways to be impactful in the new role. defense is the question--can the hoop iq and strength keep him as a plus-defender as the mobility keeps ratcheting down? we'll see soon enough.