You surely don't need me to tell you that the battle between Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and Father Time remains one of the most hotly-contested rivalries in the history of professional sports. At age 40, in his 22nd NBA season, with over 70,000 regular season and postseason minutes on his odometer, LeBron is still playing at an MVP level. But over the last few years, all of the body blows that Father Time has delivered over the last two decades are clearly beginning to add up.
Now, it's a groin strain that was suffered in LA's loss at Boston on Saturday night that will keep LeBron James sidelined for at least a week or two, but that feels like an awfully optimistic prognosis. Again, this is a man who has been playing basketball in the public spotlight for a quarter-century. So with that being the case, LeBron's 20-year All-NBA streak is officially in jeopardy.
“LeBron James has played 58 games this season. He will need to play in at least 7 more games in order to be eligible for end-of-season honors,” tweets Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints. “James has received All-NBA honors in 20 straight seasons, a streak that is now in jeopardy as a result of his groin strain.”
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The Lakers have 20 games remaining this season, which means that LeBron can still afford to miss 13 of them. However, a brutal stretch for the Lakers awaits, with seven games being played in the next 11 days. To make matters even worse, the Lakers are in the thick of a tight race in the Western Conference to avoid a Play-In Tournament they've taken part in in three of the last four years.
And in addition to 20 consecutive All-NBA nods, if LeBron were to miss the 65 game threshold, it would prevent him from what would likely be a 16th top-five finish in the NBA MVP vote, which would break a tie with Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
a]:text-link [&_>a]:underline">Sonny Giuliano is an experienced sports writer for ClutchPoints who has been covering the NFL, NCAA Football, NBA, and NCAA Basketball for well over a decade. Sonny received his degree from Florida Gulf Coast University.