As LeBron James approaches his 40th birthday, it is pertinent to examine the statistical milestones achieved by NBA players at that age.
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LeBron James will celebrate his 40th birthday on Monday, positioning him to join a select group of NBA players who have participated in the league at that age.
Here is an overview of notable statistical achievements for players in their 40s throughout NBA history:
Scoring 40 at 40
In the annals of NBA history, only one player has recorded a 40-point game while in their 40s, and that distinction belongs to Michael Jordan.
On February 21, 2003, just four days after reaching the age of 40, Jordan scored 43 points for the Washington Wizards in an 89-86 victory against the New Jersey Nets.
There have been merely seven instances of players scoring 30 points or more after turning 40; Jordan accounts for four of these performances, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Dirk Nowitzki each have one. Notably, Abdul-Jabbar and Malone achieved their 30-point games during playoff matches.
Triple Doubles
Similar to 40-point games, triple doubles are exceedingly uncommon for players aged 40 and above, with only one recorded in league history.
Karl Malone achieved this feat with a stat line of 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in a 103-87 win over the San Antonio Spurs on November 28, 2003.
Double-doubles, however, are significantly more frequent among players in their 40s, with a total of 95 recorded over the years. John Stockton leads with 23, followed by Robert Parish with 22, Malone with 21, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 14, Michael Jordan with eight, Dikembe Mutombo with five, and both Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki with one each.
Total points after 40
James is poised to make a significant impact on this list.
Excluding Tim Duncan and Danny Schayes—who both played in playoff games at 40 but did not participate in regular-season games—29 players have scored in the NBA after their 40th birthday.
Among these, eight players—Juwan Howard, Charles Jones, Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Bob Cousy, Jamal Crawford, Nat Hickey, and Joe Johnson—managed to score no more than 21 points in total after turning 40. James has the potential to surpass their cumulative scores in a single game.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the record for the most points scored after turning 40
LeBron won’t be the oldest
James is the oldest player in the NBA right now, but it’s probably safe to say that he won’t set the record as the oldest in NBA history.
He’ll have to play six more years to do that.
The oldest man to play in an NBA game was Nat Hickey, who got into two games with the Providence Steamrollers on Jan. 27 and 28, 1948. Hickey played the second of those games two days shy of his 46th birthday.
He was 0 for 6 from the field and 2 for 3 from the foul line. In his second game, he was charged with four fouls in three minutes of playing time. And he never played again.
40 in the Finals
There’s been only one player in the last two decades to play in an NBA Finals game in his 40s. That would be Miami’s Udonis Haslem, who was two days from turning 43 when he played in a Heat game in the 2023 title series against Denver.
Before him, the most recent 40something in the finals was Karl Malone in 2004.
An average night
The average game for a player once he turns 40: 6.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists.
That should be a standard James tops on a nightly basis. His average game as a 30something: 26.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 8.1 assists.
