LeBron James Compares His Health to a 2003 Escalade in 2024 and Never Changing Tires

LeBron James remains in incredible physical condition, but he's definitely feeling the toll of being 39 years old and an elite athlete for 21 seasons in the NBA.

On the latest episode of Mind the Game Pod (starts at 21:00 mark), James compared his physical state to a 2003 Cadillac Escalade that "you never changed the tires" on.

The comparison was brought up when J.J. Redick asked James about being able to handle a defensive matchup against a player like Kawhi Leonard or James Harden on a nightly basis at this point in his career.

James and the Los Angeles Lakers have been careful to manage his minutes as he's gotten older. There was an attempt by head coach Darvin Ham when this season first started to keep James' playing time around 29 minutes per game.

That experiment didn't last long because James played 35 minutes in the Lakers' second game of the season. He's averaging 35.2 minutes per game in 62 starts. If he stays at that level for the remainder of the season, it will be the 19th time in 21 seasons he has averaged more than 35 minutes per contest.

Between the regular season and playoffs, James has played an NBA-record 67,390 minutes in his career. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the only other player with more than 65,000 minutes played (66,297).

James was held out of Tuesday's double-overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks due to ankle soreness. He's dealt with the issue throughout the season, which ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported on March 7 was related to normal "wear and tear" for a player his age and this deep into his career.

When James does play, you'd never be able to tell he's 39 years old. The 20-time All-Star is averaging 25.4 points on 53.0 percent shooting, 8.1 assists and 7.2 rebounds per game.