NBA Scout Admits He Was Wrong About LeBron James: ‘I Thought He Would Look Washed This Season’

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (40) is the oldest player in the NBA. He’s in his 22nd season in the league and has played in 10 NBA Finals. 

Most NBA pundits thought LeBron would look “washed” this season since no 40-year-old has ever looked good.

Michael Jordan averaged 20.0 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists with the Washington Wizards in 2002-03, but he shot only 44.5% from the field and 29.1% from beyond the arc. 

“I thought he (LeBron) would look washed this season,” an NBA scout told Hoops Wire. “I was completely wrong about LeBron. He looks incredible. He has a good shot at making first-team All-NBA. It’s remarkable how he’s still doing this. I thought his age and (left) foot would catch up to him and I didn’t think he would mesh with JJ (Redick). They clearly have something special brewing between them.”

LeBron has appeared in 52 games for the Lakers this season. He’s averaging 24.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists while shooting 52.0% from the field, 39.6% from 3 and 76.8% from the free-throw line. 

The leading scorer in NBA history, LeBron is 15th in the league in points per game and fourth in assists per game. 

“I knew he would have some vintage games here and there this season, but I didn’t expect him to play like this,” the NBA scout said. “He’s putting up MVP numbers at 40. (Nikola) Jokic or Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) is going to win MVP, but LeBron should get a few first-place votes. No one thought the Lakers would be this good with a first-year head coach and a 40-year-old leading the way.”

The Lakers are 3-2 with LeBron and Luka Doncic in the lineup together. Slowly but surely, the two stars are gelling on the court. 

“It will happen,” LeBron said after the Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks. “It’s still early in the process, so it will happen. Obviously the trade happened and I think we had what, two games before the break? So we had two games before the break and then we had a week off. So that doesn’t help the process of us building that camaraderie and building the things that we want to do offensively. So it will come, and every game and every film session, every practice, shootaround we’ll get an opportunity to be better and better. And I thought in the last stretch when that game was tied, it showed what we’re capable of. So we’ll just have to build off of that.”