During his season debut with the Lakers on Tuesday night, LeBron James created even more NBA history by becoming the first player to play in the league for 23 seasons. After missing his team’s first 14 games of the season due to a sciatica ailment, the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer scored 11 points and provided 12 assists in his first game back.
Since the Cavaliers chose James with the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft, he has been a league star. He has the most points in NBA history, won four titles, and been selected to 21 All-Star teams.
He has been a member of the league for a very long period, as evidenced by all those statistics. After Tuesday night’s game, one reporter managed to emphasize the point even more by telling James that seven Jazz players weren’t even alive when James made his NBA debut.
That’s quite crazy. When James heard that, he had a priceless reaction, saying:
“I can sit back and think about what you just said as far as seven guys not being born when I started this journey and that just made my back hurt,” “So I got a few days before we play again.”
Lebron on having 12 assists and a turnover against 7 guys who weren’t born when he debuted lol
“That just made my back hurt. I got a few days before we play again so I’ll be okay” pic.twitter.com/lsOzM5ktOs
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) November 19, 2025
This is the list of those guys, which increases to nine when you include two Lakers players who weren’t even born when James debuted in 2003.
