LeBron James Has Controversial Take On Playing 82 Games In The Modern NBA

Over the length of his career, LeBron James has had incredible longevity, and depending on who you talk to, he's seen as either the best or the second-best player that the NBA has ever seen. Recently, though, injuries and age have caught up to him, with the last time he played 82 games in a year being 2017–18.

That marker of playing every game in a year has been a major talking point throughout league history, with many fans and analysts calling out players in the modern day for struggling to do so year in, year out. Now, James has defended the modern player, making what many will see as a controversial comment on the idea of playing all 82 games in a season.

“The way we play with the level of pace and speed we play at, it’s a different game now. It’s a lot of soft tissue injuries now because of it… When I first came in the league, the biggest concern for injuries was like a high ankle sprain… Now you see the new high ankle sprain is the calf.”

On one hand, it's easy to see that the pace in the modern NBA is light-years ahead of what we saw back in the 1980s and 1990s, but in terms of physicality, the game isn't even close to what it used to be.

Ultimately, we will never know whether Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird, among countless others, could play 82 games a season in 2026, but it's safe to say that some will be up in arms about James' recent comments.