LeBron James explains which year was the best of his career

Facebook, YouTube and the iPhone. Three things that no longer feel new at all, yet none of them existed when LeBron James made his NBA debut on Oct. 29, 2003. His son Bronny James, now his teammate, had not even been born yet. LeBron is far more than a battle-tested veteran or simply the oldest player in the league. His career has transcended time itself, to the point that the very meaning of longevity has been redefined by “the King.”

Now beginning his 23rd season, still a starter and still a key piece on one of the NBA’s best teams, the obvious question remains: where is the limit? Just last season, in what was his 22nd year, LeBron averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. Those numbers are unprecedented for a player more than two decades into his career and not far off his lifetime averages.

Consistency may sound like a dull word, but there is nothing simple about maintaining elite production for more than 20 years. No one else has done it. No one has even come close. In that sense, LeBron is one of one. It almost feels unreal that his highest scoring average in a single season is “only” 30.3 points per game, set in 2021-22. That was just the second time he cleared the 30-point mark, after first doing it in 2007-08. Outside of his rookie season, he has never averaged fewer than 24.4 points, which was his low-water mark last year.

This season, however, as the first third of the schedule passes, things feel different. His scoring average with the Lakers has dipped to 20.3 points per game, while Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, arguably the highest-scoring perimeter duo in the league, have carried much of the offensive load. Even time itself finally caught up to one of LeBron’s most untouchable records. His streak of 1,297 consecutive games scoring at least 10 points, which began in 2007, ended in a recent game against the Raptors.

Looking back at LeBron’s peak

For several seasons now, there has been quiet speculation about whether the current year could be LeBron’s last. At 41 years old, not even the most unique body in NBA history is immortal. That makes this a fitting moment to look back and revisit what James himself considers the best season of his career.

“If I had to choose the moment when I felt the most complete as a basketball player, I’d say 2018,” LeBron said on a podcast with Steve Nash.

At first glance, the 2017-18 season does not leap off the page within a career as vast as his. He averaged 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 9.1 assists, elite numbers but familiar ones for LeBron. The magic lies beneath the surface. “I felt like I couldn’t do anything wrong on the court,” he said. “I don’t think there was a flaw in my game.”

In his own eyes, he reached basketball perfection, if such a thing exists. Even so, that season did not end with a championship. The Avengers were simply too much for Thanos. Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Warriors in the summer of 2016 broke the league, and although LeBron steamrolled the Eastern Conference yet again, Steve Kerr’s Warriors were an impossible obstacle. Still, that ending was only part of the story. Sometimes the journey matters more than the destination.

Cleveland, Miami and the hero’s return

Cleveland always was and always will be home for LeBron. It was his promised land, the place where he completed his personal hero’s journey, leaving and then returning. The betrayal, as it was seen at the time, came in 2011 with a single sentence: “I’m taking my talents to South Beach.”

After seven seasons and one Finals appearance in his first stint with the Cavaliers, LeBron decided to fight on his own terms. The roster and the franchise could not give him what he needed to win a title. The closest he came was a Finals sweep at the hands of Gregg Popovich’s Spurs, 4-0, a reminder that one man cannot defeat an army.

Miami was a different story. Four straight Finals appearances and two championships followed. After a shaky debut and a stunning loss to the Mavericks in the 2011 Finals, the LeBron-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh trio clicked. In the next two seasons, the Larry O’Brien Trophy stayed in Miami.

But LeBron James was a man on a mission. No hero’s journey makes sense without a return home, changed by experience. “Tell the world I’m coming home.” That promise began in the 2014-15 season, this time with a plan. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love became perfect complements for the already crowned king.

From 2011 through 2019, LeBron reached the NBA Finals every single year, eight straight appearances, four with Miami and four with Cleveland. Injuries derailed the first year back, and the Warriors shocked the basketball world with a style that changed the league forever. One year later, revenge came cold. LeBron delivered on his promise and brought a championship to Cleveland. The Cavaliers won the 2016 Finals 4-3, completing the first 3-1 comeback in Finals history, one of the greatest achievements the sport has ever seen.

And yet, the best version of LeBron James was still to come.

The 2018 playoff masterpiece

After losing again to the Warriors in 2017, now supercharged with Durant, LeBron entered the summer with a plan. Whatever he did worked. In 2017-18, he played all 82 regular-season games, the only time he has ever done so. It was not just that he played. It was how he played. Night after night, the cyborg showed up.

Irving’s departure to Boston left LeBron without his primary star teammate, but it forced him to expand his game even further. “Every time I touched the ball, I could do anything I imagined, on defense and offense. It was another level,” he said.

Cleveland finished fourth in the East at 50-32, the worst regular-season finish of the LeBron era. After 82 games, though, he still had plenty left. The real show was about to begin.

In the first round, the Cavaliers faced a young, fearless Pacers team led by an elite Victor Oladipo. After a nearly 20-point loss in Game 1, 98-80, LeBron answered with 46 points in Game 2. The series tightened and dragged on until Game 7, but the defining moment came earlier. With the series tied 2-2, the score knotted at 95 and three seconds left, LeBron took two dribbles and buried a step-back three at the buzzer. He finished with 44 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, one of the most iconic game-winners of his career. In Game 7, he added 45 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists in a 105-101 win. He was unstoppable, averaging 34.4 points, 10 rebounds and 7.7 assists in the series, and that was only the beginning.

Toronto was next, coming off a franchise-best regular season as the No. 1 seed in the East. What they encountered was a phenomenon fans came to call LeBronto. LeBron was at the peak of his powers, a man among children. He averaged 34 points, 8.3 rebounds and 11 assists. In Game 3, with the score tied at 93 and eight seconds remaining, he went coast to coast and hit a fading runner over two defenders at the buzzer. Another walk-off. The Raptors were swept, 4-0.

Silencing Boston and facing the unbeatable

The Eastern Conference finals brought a different challenge. Boston’s suffocating defense took its toll early. LeBron scored just 15 points in Game 1 on 5-of-16 shooting, with a minus-32 plus-minus in a 108-83 loss. In Game 2, he delivered a masterpiece, 42 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, but it was not enough. The Celtics, even without Irving, was a complete team led by young stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, along with veterans Marcus Morris and Al Horford, plus Terry Rozier filling in brilliantly. Cleveland was down 2-0, and history was daunting. When the Celtics led a playoff series 2-0, they were 37-0 all time.

The Cavaliers won Game 3. In Game 4, LeBron exploded for 44 points to even the series. Home teams traded wins in Games 5 and 6, with LeBron posting 46 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists in the sixth. A Game 7 awaited.

“It was the last game of the series,” Horford later recalled. “I looked at Tatum and Brown, at Rozier, at myself, and we were exhausted. I looked at him. He had played the entire game, and his face was emotionless. It was unsettling.”

LeBron played all 48 minutes, scoring 35 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and dishing 9 assists in an 87-79 win that silenced TD Garden. “With everything he’s accomplished, nothing will top carrying this team to the Finals by himself,” Jeff Van Gundy said on the broadcast. Only Kevin Love averaged more than 10 points for Cleveland that postseason. Nearly alone, LeBron conquered an entire conference.

Reality finally caught up in the Finals. Golden State was simply too much. Still, in Game 1 on the road, LeBron produced one of the finest performances of his life: 51 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. He went toe to toe with what may be the greatest team ever assembled. Down 107-106 with six seconds left, he found George Hill cutting to the rim. Hill made the first free throw, missed the second, and J.R. Smith grabbed the rebound. Unaware of the score, Smith held the ball instead of shooting. Chaos followed, overtime arrived, and the Cavaliers lost. The series ended in a 4-0 sweep.

The Warriors had broken the Matrix. No one on the planet, not even one of the greatest players in history at the absolute peak of his powers, could beat them. That was how LeBron’s magical 2018 season ended, a year he still considers the best of his remarkable career.

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