22 years.
That is how long it has been since LeBron James did not make one of the league's All-NBA teams, an honor given to the top 15 players in a given year. For over two decades, like a metronome, LeBron was recognized for his brilliance.
That streak ended on Sunday, as the NBA announced the players who were voted onto the three teams. Luka Doncic made the First Team despite missing the very end of the season and playoffs due to injury. LeBron, however, played in just 60 games, falling short of the 65-game threshold and thus being ineligible for major end-of-season awards.
Bronny James, LeBron's son and teammate, has never known a world where his father didn't win the All-NBA award.
Bronny James has only seen excellence
Seriously, that is true. Bronny was born on October 6, 2004, in Akron, Ohio. LeBron James would begin his second season less than a month later. There have been 22 seasons played since he was born, and this was the first where LeBron did not make an All-NBA Team.
That is a truly wild and borderline unprecedented fact. There are players in the NBA who were not even born when LeBron started this streak. Victor Wembanyama was one year old when James made his first All-NBA team, and he just made First Team All-NBA (and is poised to take over the league at just 22 years old).
YouTube first launched the same year LeBron James made an All-NBA team. The iPhone had not yet debuted; neither had Google Maps. The Office had not yet aired on television. Shaquille O'Neal was still on the Lakers.
Those alive long enough to have seen and appreciated Michael Jordan play basketball in the 1990s will almost always say that he is the greatest player of all time. Perhaps they are right. In the classic "one player to play the aliens for the survival of the planet" scenario, perhaps Jordan is the right pick.
LeBron's career is untouchable
What LeBron has done over the last 23 years, however, is staggering. His endurance year after year to be one of the league's very best players is untouchable and borderline unimaginable. If he had played in enough games, it is possible he would have extended his streak to 22-straight All-NBA teams.
Second place on that list? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan each made 15 All-NBA teams. Karl Malone and Shaq made 14 each. Michael Jordan only made 11. For all of his brilliance, Jordan chewed through teammates and himself and had to step away from the game. He couldn't do what LeBron has done.
21 All-NBA teams in a row. 13 first-team selections. And at 41 years old, he is still playing at a high level. His performance in the first round against the Houston Rockets was sublime. He's still got a lot in the tank, even at 41 years old.
Bronny James is watching his father make history again and again. And for the first time in his 21 years of life, he saw an All-NBA team announced without his father on it.
What a career from LeBron James.
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