LeBron's weird new milestone

LeBron James hit 12,000 career assists on April 10, and the weird part is not the round number but the age on the box score: he is 41 years old and still stacking point-guard numbers in a forward’s body. Basketball Reference lists him at 41, and league reporting says he became only the fourth player in National Basketball Association history to reach 12,000 assists. (basketball-reference.com) (gmanetwork.com) The pass that pushed him over the line was not a safe little swing pass in the half court. It was a full-court chest pass to Deandre Ayton less than five minutes into the Lakers’ 101-73 win over Phoenix, and by the end of the night James was at 12,010 career assists. (gmanetwork.com) The three-game run is even stranger. On April 5 against Dallas he had 30 points and 15 assists, on April 9 against Golden State he had 26 points and 11 assists, and on April 10 against Phoenix he had 28 points and 12 assists. (nba.com) (news18.com) That gave James three straight games with at least 25 points and 10 assists after turning 40, which National Basketball Association video notes as a first for any player age 40 or older. Most players that age are fighting for 20 good minutes; James is running the offense like a lead guard and still finishing as a scorer. (nba.com) The 12,000-assist club is tiny because it usually belongs to specialists who spent two decades bringing the ball up the floor. The names ahead of James are John Stockton at 15,806, Chris Paul at 12,552, and Jason Kidd at 12,091. (gmanetwork.com) James got there from a different job description. Basketball Reference lists him across five positions — small forward, power forward, point guard, center, and shooting guard — which is another way of saying he has spent 23 seasons doing every part of the offense instead of living in one lane. (basketball-reference.com) The age curve makes the stat look even more bent out of shape. News18 cited a count showing there had been 35 games in league history by players age 38 or older with at least 25 points and 10 assists, and James owned 34 of them. (news18.com) This late-season burst also landed at a useful time for Los Angeles. The Phoenix win moved the Lakers to 52-29 and locked in home-court advantage in a first-round playoff series, with one regular-season game left and a shot at climbing as high as the third seed. (gmanetwork.com) (nba.com) So the oddity is not just that James crossed 12,000 assists. It is that a 41-year-old wing-sized player is still producing the kind of back-to-back-to-back scoring-and-setup line that usually belongs to a 27-year-old star guard in the middle of his prime. (basketball-reference.com) (nba.com)