The Los Angeles Lakers‘ hopes of a deep postseason run in the 2025 NBA Playoffs were curtailed early by a limp first-round loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in which they never truly threatened. They won the second game of the series, with LeBron James recording 21 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, but that was all, crashing out 4-1 in a series in which they only cracked the 100-point margin twice
Any chance of a comeback was curtailed in what turned out to the final game of the series, when Lakers superstar James had a coming-together with Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo that saw him lay prone on the floor for a few moments. The injury – later diagnosed as a medial collateral ligament sprain – was later reported to have been one that would have kept him out of the next few weeks of play anyway.
Had the Lakers won, then, James’ consecutive playoff games played streak would have ended at 292 games. And that level of hardiness is no fluke.
Blessed with a combination of size, strength, speed and leap the likes of which has never been seen, LeBron throughout his career has sought to pair these outstanding natural gifts with some artificial maintenance techniques that have long been documented.
Although he himself is reticent to confirm or deny it, James reportedly spends up to $1 million annually on his body, using modern technologies such as cryotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen chambers to stay in peak condition and prolong his career as much as possible. Given that he is still playing to a very high level now past his fortieth birthday, and has shattered untold numbers of longevity records on his way to being the leading scorer of all time, it has been a very sound investment.
In those 22 years, James has played 1,854 games across both the regular and postseasons, surpassing even the long-standing previous high of 1,797 set by the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In those 22 years, he has been involved of tens of thousands of possessions, sprints, jumps, pivots, twists, practices and hard fouls, playing to the highest possible level a sport whose reliance on athleticism and changes of direction are taxing on the lower body.
And yet somehow, until this series, LeBron maintains that he has never before had a knee injury.
Following the Lakers’ elimination, at the 11.40 mark of an appearance on the podcast that LeBron hosts alongside former two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, Mind the Game, he disclosed how the injury to his knee ligament was a first for him. Despite ligament strains, sprains and tears being a common injury in the burst-heavy impact-laden sport of basketball, with all the jumping and collisions taking their toll on the lower body, James claims never to have had one before, despite his historic work load in that time.
For example, in a data set that archived all reported injuries between 2010 and 2020, LeBron is listed as having wrist, ankle, hamstring and groin strains to go along with back spasms, illness and a fractured nose, but only one instance of a reported knee strain, which occurred back in 2014 on his thirtieth birthday. The Sporting News’ 2023 attempt to document LeBron’s injury history reports a few instances of knee swelling and soreness; however, given LeBron’s comments to Nash that acknowledge some tendinitis and patella issues in his career to date, perhaps his claim to this being the first ligament injury he has ever had still holds true.
Whether or not LeBron’s statement is entirely borne out by the reporting or not, it does speak to the fact that even history-making longevity ends eventually. The oldest player in the NBA, the only player to ever play 22 seasons, and potentially the only player to ever play 23, James’s knee is reminding him that he is on the eighteenth green of his career.
Having not dispelled the possibility of retirement after his Lakers’ elimination, the collision with DiVincenzo serves as a reminder to both him and us that it is nearly time to call it quits. Soon, the knee will demand it. But for now, the 292-game streak remains active.
