What Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has continued to accomplish at his age is unprecedented as the soon-to-be 40-year-old is still playing at an All-NBA level going into his 22nd season.
James recently signed a new two-year contract with the Lakers, which he acknowledged could be the last contract of his career. Until his play slows down though, it’s hard to imagine LeBron calling it a career.
He still loves the game so much that he committed to Team USA for one last Olympic run this summer. James led the way with an early commitment and other superstars such as Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid followed suit.
This is arguably USA Basketball’s most talented Olympic team ever with All-Stars up and down the roster all committed to one goal of coming home from Paris with gold medals.
In a recent interview with David Marchese of the New York Times though, Embiid cautioned that gold is not guaranteed for this group and used James’ age as an example of why they could struggled:
“You look at the talent that the U.S. has, but there’s equal talent on other teams. And the talent that’s on the U.S. team, you also got to understand most of those guys are older. The LeBron now is not the LeBron that was a couple of years ago. So it’s a big difference. Everybody would also tell you, and you can see for yourself, the athletic LeBron, dominant that he was a couple of years ago, is not the same that he is now. I think people get fooled by the names on paper. But those names have been built throughout their career, and now they’re older. They’re not what they used to be.”
Even though Embiid likely wasn’t trying to take a shot at James, it’s not really a good look to use that as a reason for why the Americans could lose.
Through their exhibition games so far, LeBron has still looked exceptional from an athleticism standpoint. He is not putting up the big stats that he is accustomed to, which was expected with so many other stars on the roster, but he is still playing his role to perfection.
On the other hand, Embiid has really struggled so far, looking out of shape. That has caused many to question why head coach Steve Kerr is not starting Davis over him. If Team USA does indeed end up losing, then perhaps that will be more of a reason than the age of James or any of the other superstars on the roster.
Steve Kerr will continue to start LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Stephen Curry
Steve Kerr has experimented with some lineups so far in exhibition play, although the three constant starters have been LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Stephen Curry. Kerr recently revealed that he expects that to continue, which is notable with Davis largely outplaying Embiid so far.
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