Ultimate torture: How many points does James end up in his career?40,002 is not difficult 40,005 needs to meet the ultimate conditions
"Before I know it, I'm about to get old, although it's still the young man who is alive in my heart... Tirelessly climbing, over every hill, over the hills, although the head is white, chattering, the sorrow that I can't give away..."Li Zongsheng sang in "The Hills".
That desolation, that sadness, and that reluctance belong to the passage of time, and everyone can't escape it. It's just that James, who is about to turn 39 years old, still seems to be constantly defeating the "old man of time", and he still shows no signs of aging in the 21st season of his career. 40,000 points can be described as a handle for James, and 42,000 points are not too difficult in theory, but if you want to hit 45,000 points, it is extremely difficult, unless you play to the 25th season and 43 years old, and the doubt is that it will take longer to meet the ultimate conditions.
When James is now 39 days away from his 39th birthday, he successfully reached the 39,000-point milestone in the regular season of his career, which undoubtedly has special historical significance. James is taking another step towards the first "40,000+10,000+10,000" miracle player in history.
It's just that James's career will not stop after reaching 40,000 points, unlike Jordan, who is the "highest mountain" in NBA history, James is the "longest river", and when his career will come to an end, only he knows.
How long can James play? There is no suspense in breaking Carter's 22 seasons, and it is believed that he can even play until he is 45 years old.
James signed a two-year, $97.13 million early contract extension with the Lakers in the summer of 2022, and his current contract includes two seasons left in the season, which expires in the summer of 2025. Among them, James' $50.43 million contract for the 2024-25 season is a player option, and it is unknown whether James will jump out of his contract in the summer of 2024.
In terms of his current contract alone, if James completes the remainder of his contract, he will play 22 seasons in the NBA, tying the record held by Carter for the most in history. In James's 21st career now, he still averaged 25.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 58.7% from the field and 41% from three-point range.
Even after James completes his current contract, he is still considered capable of continuing to play, and he will continue to play with an extremely strong competitive ability. In this case, James can choose to sign a new contract in the summer of 2025, or jump out of the existing contract in the summer of 2024 and re-sign a new multi-year contract, so it is almost impossible for James to surpass Carter's 22 seasons and set a new all-time record.
What's more, James' agent, Rich Paul, once publicly revealed in an interview that as long as James is willing to continue playing, he can even play until he is 44 or 45 years old.
How long do James want to play? Competing with his son is the goal, will he wait for the second son after the eldest son?
"How long can James still play?" and "How long does James want to play?", although these two questions are only one word apart, the difference is huge, and it is an objective and subjective consideration.
James' super endurance and super self-discipline throughout his long career, not only have he always maintained his hard work, but also spent millions of dollars a year on physical maintenance, allowing him to maintain the level of the league's top superstars in his 21st career season.
It is based on this factor that the premise of how long James can play, as long as he does not experience major injuries that affect his career, James' career seems to have a "long" journey to go.
But how long does James want to play? James still has two goals, of which the ultimate goal is naturally to catch up with or even surpass Jordan, after all, James is currently 4 crowns away from Jordan 6 crowns, there is still a gap of 2 crowns, and it is extremely difficult to catch up or even surpass.
As for James's other goal, it is to achieve the first father-son pair in NBA history to compete on the same game. James' eldest son, Bronny, will be able to participate in the NBA Draft in 2024, so James could achieve his goal of playing with Bronny as soon as next season.
In the future, will James wait until his second son Bryce also lands in the NBA? Bryce will participate in the NBA draft in 2026, so it seems that it is not a problem to require James to play until he is 41 years old, it depends on James's personal wishes. If James falls sharply by then, perhaps he will choose to retire, similar to Kobe's reluctance to stay in the league after a significant decline.
How many points can James score in the end?42,000 points are not very difficult, 45,000 points are extremely difficult.
James has played 1,435 regular season games in his career so far, scoring 39,012 points to rank first in history, and 988 points away from reaching the all-time first 40,000 points.
Based on James' average of 25.7 points per game this season, James needs about 38 games to achieve.
Based on James' career average of 27.13 points per game, James needs about 36 more games to achieve.
Of course, James' career total is far from stopping at 40,000 points, so how many points can he get at the end of his career?
With James breaking the 40,000-point milestone this season almost without suspense, James is expected to aim even higher. After the end of this season, James is expected to achieve an average of 25+ miracles per game for 20 consecutive seasons and continue to refresh his all-time No. 1 record.
Based on James' 56 and 55 games in the past two seasons as a reference, it is still unknown whether James will miss a certain number of games due to injury this season. At present, James has scored 360 points in 14 games this season, and if he plays 55 games, he can still score 1,054 points this season, and his career total will reach 40,066 points, so there is not much suspense about breaking through 40,000 points. As for James, if he can play in 60 games this season, he will have about 40,194 career points at the end of the season.
Since James still has one season left on his current contract, if the 2024-25 season is still 60 games and an average of 25 points per game, James can add 1,500 points a season, and his career total points can be increased to about 41,700 points, so it is not too difficult to hit 42,000 points.
Considering James' physical condition and athletic ability, he can continue to compete in the NBA, but if he wants to reach 45,000 points. When James completes his current contract, he is still about 3,300 points away from this goal, and it will still take about 165 games to reduce James' scoring ability from 25 points per game to 20 points per game, which also means that James will have to play for another 3 seasons, and he needs to play 25 seasons until he is 43 years old, and there are no serious injuries, so it is still extremely difficult.
"When I crossed the hill, I found that there was no one waiting, chattering, and could no longer call for tenderness. Why can't I remember who gave the hug last time, and when?"
(Text/Drunken Sleeping)