All-Star Los Angeles Lakers power forward LeBron James has frequently found himself to be the subject of ire from ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith over the entire course of his soon-to-be-23-year NBA career.
No one in the history of the league has been able to hold up to the rigors of an 82-game regular season schedule and up to two months of playoff series the way James has.
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The four-time league MVP, a 21-time All-NBA honoree and All-Star, has more mileage on him than anyone in league history. And that doesn’t just extend to the regular season.
James has dragged his teams to 10 NBA Finals appearances, winning four championships for his three basketball franchises — Los Angeles, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Miami Heat — as the unquestioned best player.
He has already carved out his spot on the league’s Mount Rushmore, numbering among the best four-ish players ever. Will he ever earn Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) status, over the likes of Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
On his own “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith called out the 6-foot-9 vet for “stat-padding,” amplifying his own numbers at the expense of winning and/or the flow of games. In fairness, James has been thoroughly outmatched in each of his last two playoff appearances with LA, getting knocked out of the first round in the Western Conference in five games by the Denver Nuggets in 2024 and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2025.
“He’s going to be 41, he’s in his 23rd year, stat-padding his way to make ignorant folks out there think that’s going to make him the GOAT over Jordan — not realizing that most of the stuff it took him to do in 20-plus years, Jordan did in 13,” Smith said, ignoring Jordan’s final two post-un-retirement seasons with the Washington Wizards from 2001-03. “We’re gonna look at all that stuff, and that’s fine. I’m telling you where the hell I stand.”
A Still-Potent Superstar Even In Winter
Last year, James averaged 24.4 points on .513/.376/.782 shooting splits, 8.2 assists, and 7.8 rebounds while appearing in 70 games for the 50-32 Lakers. He was named an All-Star yet again and made the All-NBA Second Team.
He is not the All-Defensive Team mainstay he had been during his Miami-era prime, but as the league’s oldest active player for what will be a third consecutive season in 2025-26, it’s unreasonable to expect him to remain a behemoth on both ends of the floor.
James still has remarkable athleticism and remains a lethal offensive force, but even on the Lakers he is ceding the spotlight to a now-better teammate (though not historically better), five-time All-NBA First Team guard Luka Doncic. Father Time may be undefeated, but James is certainly giving the guy a run for his money.
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