Despite the shortened offseason, LeBron James remains as productive as ever in Year 18. It was widely expected that the Los Angeles Lakers would ease James to begin the 2020-21 season, but he has appeared in every game so far.
James’ jumper has been a welcomed development and made life on offense easier, but he still plays hard on defense despite the mileage on his body. James’ success in the twilight of his prime is similar to Tom Brady who played in his NFL-record 10th Super Bowl and won a seventh championship.
“It doesn’t do anything for me as far as what I do in my profession,” James said. “But what it does it let me know and both of us know that we can still play this game at a high level no matter how many miles, how many games, how many doubters, the statistics in our respective professions at our age.
“We can still dominate our sport and also we can blend with groups we may not have been around for a long period of time. It’s just our professionalism, how we attack the sport, how we attack every single day of being a professional and wanting to win every single day in film, on the practice field and in the games.
“We gravitate towards people and people gravitate towards us because we have one common goal, and that’s to win at the highest level.”
The parallels between James and Brady are hard to gloss over, especially with how synonymous they have become with winning. James is currently in the midst of another MVP-caliber season and leads a Lakers team favored to repeat as NBA champions. Brady is in position to win his seventh Super Bowl ring in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
James and Brady are generational athletes and what they are doing is unprecedented in sports history.
LeBron inspired by Brady in win against Cavaliers
In James’ recent return to Cleveland, he dropped a season-high 46 points. The performance came a day after Brady punched the Buccaneers’ ticket to Super Bowl LV and James admitted it gave him an extra boost.
“Seeing Brady, the things he did with that team, that inspired me as well,” James said after torching the Cavaliers. “But I just felt pretty good, as I have the whole season. I’ve been getting better and better as each game goes on. I felt good from the beginning and just tried to keep it going.”
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