As long as James plays next season, he will break a record and become the longest record in his NBA career

On June 20, LeBron James is about to create a new chapter in NBA history in the 2025-26 season - as long as he steps on the court, he will surpass the 22 season record held by Vince Carter and Robert Parish in 23 seasons, becoming the longest-span player in the league's career. The superstar, who is about to turn 41, is rewriting people's perception of the professional life expectancy of basketball players with an extraordinary competitive state.

**The evolutionary history of the Body of Steel**

Since entering the league as the Chosen Son in 2003, James' physical function management can be regarded as a professional sports textbook. According to sports medicine experts, he invests more than $1.5 million a year in body maintenance, including hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment, cryotherapy and customized nutritional programs. What's even more amazing is that in the 2024-25 season, he still averaged 24.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, and his shooting percentage remained at 51.3%. This "counter-growth" performance completely overturned the recession curve of traditional athletes. The Lakers medical team revealed that James' current muscle moisture content and bone density test results are comparable to those of a 30-year-old athlete, thanks to the "microcycle training method" he has adopted in recent years - dividing the whole year into hundreds of 48-hour training units, each unit dynamically adjusting its intensity based on real-time physiological data. The scientific and technological revolution behind the record**

James's everlasting secret reflects the intergenerational leap of NBA training science. Compared with the Carter era's training method that relies on empiricism, modern players have the support of black technologies such as biomechanical sensors and motion metabolism tracking systems. Taking the smart recovery pajamas endorsed by James as an example, its built-in nanofibers can monitor core body temperature and muscle microinjuries in real time, and the data is directly synchronized to the medical team. League data shows that the average career of players in the past decade has been extended from 4.8 years to 6.3 years, but it is still rare to reach 20+ seasons - this highlights James' uniqueness in the combination of talent and technology.

**The battery life password of the business empire**

Off-field commercial layout is also the key to James' protracted battle. Through diversified investments such as SpringHill Entertainment Company and Liverpool Football Club, he has spread the pressure of his basketball career to a broader business ecosystem. This "de-basketball centralization" strategy significantly reduces psychological losses, which is in sharp contrast to the fact that Carter still had to go to multiple teams in the two years before his retirement. Nike's latest financial report shows that the sales of the James series of products in consumer groups over 35 years have increased by 340% in five years, proving that its brand value has broken through the sports performance itself and transformed into a cross-generational cultural symbol.

**Parameter transfer of league ecology**

James spans four decades of career, just witnessing the evolution of the NBA from the era of muscle confrontation to the era of space basketball. When rookie Parrish retired in 1998, the league averaged only 8.7 three-point shots per game, while in 2024 this number reached 34.9. This change objectively extends the career of technical players, but cases like James' continuous adjustment of his playing style are still rare: his three-point shooting percentage this season was 39.1% hit a career high, up nearly 15 percentage points from the rookie season. The scout report shows that his game style has completed three transformations from "violent breakthrough" to "organization forward" to "spatial endpoint".

**Special significance of intergenerational inheritance**

When James and Brownie are expected to become the first father-son combination in the NBA to compete in the same game, this record is given richer connotations. Compared with Carter's "Goodbye" atmosphere during his retirement season, James is still participating in the championship competition, redefining the ultimate form of the veteran. League historians point out that from Jabbar to Malone to Carter, previous eternal record holders have retreated to role players in the final stages, and James may create a new model of "core identity breaking".

Looking back at the summer of 2025, this upcoming record has long surpassed the simple pile of numbers. It is not only an empirical evidence of the peak of sports science, but also a model for self-iteration for professional sports people, and a living specimen of the development trajectory of basketball. When future players pursue new career length records, they will eventually discover that what needs to be surpassed is not only time, but also No. 23, who has always been at the forefront of the times for three decades.