In close to three months, LeBron James will be turning 33 and well into his 15th season in the National Basketball Association. And he’ll be an old 33, having had a career spanning 50,399 minutes through 1,278 games, the playoffs included. To understand the toll his body of work has taken on his, well, body, one need only consider that he already ranks 87th all time in regular season matches played and 25th all time in minutes played. And still he keeps chugging along; he will be embarking on a campaign that pundits believe will net him an eighth straight Finals appearance, a feat not seen in 50 years and bettered by only four players who toiled for the Celtics dynasty in the sixties.
Considering James’ durability and dependability, it’s no wonder that he again figures prominently in NBA.com’s latest survey of general managers. As far as they’re concerned, he’s the safest bet to claim Most Valuable Player honors for the 2017-2018 season. For the record, that’s what they also said last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that. Parenthetically, this year’s poll likewise has him tabbed the league’s best passer, best leader, and best small forward, not to mention the player with the highest intelligence quotient, the most versatile, and the toughest to plan for.
To be fair, the GMs get more things wrong than right; James hasn’t won the MVP award since 2013, for one. Then again, there’s cause to believe they’re more on the mark this time around. The immediate past season had him norming career highs in rebounds and assists, and yet he found himself out of the Top Three in the MVP vote tally for the first time since 2008. The snub prompted him to stay in shape and emerge from what he disclosed to be his most productive offseason in a while. He left the reason unsaid, but his objective is clear: He wants to hit the ground running and show his worth.
The question, of course, is whether James will pace himself enough to stay in the MVP discussion and, at the same time, keep fit for the playoff grind. Championship rings are what have driven him most, which was why he thought best to ease up on the throttle early and then shift to higher gears when appropriate en route to competing for the hardware. For GMs, the answer is yes, and it’s now up to him to prove them right.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is the Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Basic Energy Corp.
