Players who've lasted long enough to rack up 30,000 points are supposed to be in the twilight of their careers by the time they reach the milestone. LeBron James, who crossed the 30,000-point threshold Tuesday night in San Antonio, is practically peaking.
Though his Cleveland Cavaliers are imploding and his defensive consistency has waned, James' age-33 season has been one for the ages.
The 15-year veteran is averaging 26.8 points, 8.6 assists, 7.9 rebounds, 1.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks while shooting 55 percent from the field and 36 percent from deep. Those assist, rebound, and block numbers are higher than LeBron's career averages, and the only other 26-8-7-1-1 season in NBA history belongs to James himself, when he achieved the feat eight years ago.
Over the years, much has been made of James' natural abilities - his freakish physical makeup, his durability, his cyborg-like recovery from ailments such as nasty ankle sprains - but ask those around the King, and they'll tell you his natural talents are matched only by his work ethic.
"He's definitely been gifted, but he works as hard, if not harder, than the person who doesn't have those gifts," Dwyane Wade told theScore earlier in January in Toronto. "That's what makes him special. It's not the gifts that God gave him. It's the work that he puts in. It's the attention to detail to his body that he's had from Day 1 that's allowed him to be this durable."
Wade would know - in addition to being best friends off the court, he and James have played a third of their Hall of Fame careers as teammates.
"He's the kind of guy that if somebody on the team wanted to go get shots up, he could've played 45 minutes the night before, but he would still go to the gym with them, just so they won't be by themselves, and get his work in," Wade said. "He just loves the game and he wants to give everything he can to the game, and it's been that way from Day 1."
Warriors assistant Mike Brown wasn't there for day one of LeBron's journey, but the veteran coach did take over the Cavs when James was only 20, and he saw enough in those early years to understand the star's continued durability is no accident.
One memory, in particular - a few days after a Game 7 loss to the Pistons in the 2006 Eastern Conference semifinals - sticks out for Brown.
"I went into the office about four or five days after our last game, and I brought my oldest boy. At the time he was maybe fifth, sixth grade. I go into my office, he grabs a basketball and goes out on the court to start shooting. This is like, 9, 10 in the morning, in the offseason, summertime. He runs back into my office and says, 'Dad, LeBron's here!' I'm like, 'OK.' He's like, 'What do you mean, OK? Shouldn't he be in the Bahamas or something?'
"That's what a lot of young people think," Brown says. "They think he walks into a telephone booth and then he walks out, and he's got this Superman LeBron cape on, where he's invincible. People don't understand the amount of work that he puts in. He was in the weight room working out, then he went and got a little bit of court work in, and then he went and got treatment."
Opponents turned teammates often react with the same boyish wonder Elijah Brown felt that summer when they finally see all the work that goes into keeping LeBron operating at the highest level.
"During the summer, he took two days off, and then this dude was in the gym again," Cavaliers teammate Channing Frye told theScore. "I was like, 'Damn, do I gotta get in the gym, too?'
"He just ... he's a savage," Frye explains, shaking his head in disbelief. "Every day he's doing something to better his body and to make sure his mind is right. He's meticulous about his routine - what he takes, how much sleep he gets - but then he just, God-given, has more energy than any other human I know. 8, 9 o'clock in the morning, this guy's doing windmills and stuff on back-to-backs. My body hurts doing a layup, even getting up."
It's that combination of restless energy, tireless dedication, and once-in-a-lifetime athleticism that gets you to 30,000 points; that puts you in a position where three-quarters of active players weren't even in the league yet the last time you missed the Finals; and that allows you to log 37 minutes per game this season despite already having 52,000 career minutes under your belt between the regular season and playoffs.
"One thing I've always prided myself on is just being available - being available for my teammates, where they know that every night I'm available for them," James told theScore.
"I've had to change things over the course of my career to maximize me being out on the floor and being available for my team. There's things you learn, things you learn your body works well with and don't work so well with to be able to put yourself in tip-top shape and the best conditioned athlete that you can be."
Father Time may be undefeated, but James is giving him the fight of his life, and as long as someone as gifted as LeBron remains the hardest worker in the gym - as long as James continues to feel he's chasing ghosts - the fight will continue well past 30,000 points.
"Y'all keep following me, I'mma keep it going," James told reporters earlier this month. At the rate he's working, we have no choice but to follow.
(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)
