LeBron James’ beard has quite a bit of gray in it these days. Chris Paul has been hearing questions for years about how much longer he wants to play. Kyle Lowry already has his retirement job lined up, whenever that day comes.
Meet the NBA’s current 20-year club. It’s bigger than ever before.
There are no players currently in the NBA — and very few in the league’s 80-season history — with more seniority than the trio of James, Paul and Lowry. For the first time, the NBA has three players simultaneously entering their 20th seasons; James, when he makes his 2025-26 debut, will be the first 23-year player in league history, while Paul is going into his 21st season and Lowry is entering his 20th.
“The love of the game is still high. The love of the process is even higher,” said the 40-year-old James, who will be entering his eighth season with the Los Angeles Lakers after two stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers — his first seven seasons from 2003-10, and a four-season run from 2014-18 — that sandwiched four seasons with the Miami Heat.
“So, that’s what continues to push me to play this game,” the four-time league and NBA Finals MVP added. “I mean, it is really that simple.”
There’s nothing simple about it. To still be contributing at this level, at this point in their careers, is practically unheard of.
All three invest plenty of their own money (they’ve made a combined $1.2 billion in NBA salaries) in their own individualized programs that have helped them survive the rigors of pro basketball for this long.
James’ workout regimen is legendary, but he’s not invincible. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward will miss the start of this season while dealing with sciatica, and there’s no firm timetable for when he’ll actually take the floor with the Lakers to officially start his 23rd season after going straight from the high school ranks to the top of the 2003 NBA draft.
The 39-year-old Lowry, at least since the NBA began tracking such stats, is the league leader in career charges taken, which means the 6-foot, 196-point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers — he previously played for the Memphis Grizzlies (2006-09), the Houston Rockets (2009-12), the Toronto Raptors (2012-21) and the Heat (2021-24) — has probably taken more hard falls than anybody currently in the game.
And last season with the San Antonio Spurs, Paul became the first player in NBA history to play 82 games in the 20th year of a career — and he started all of them, too. That was the lone season with the Spurs for the 40-year-old Paul (6-0, 175), who has also played for the New Orleans Hornets (2005-11), the Los Angeles Clippers (2011-17), the Rockets (2017-19), the Oklahoma City Thunder (2019-20) and the Phoenix Suns (2020-23).
“I’ve always believed in ‘keep stacking days’ and that you just have to show up every single day, every single day,” said Paul, who rejoined the Clippers this summer. “So, that’s what I plan on bringing to this team. … My role on this team is obviously different than it’s been the past 20 years of being in the NBA, but showing up every day, if I can show some of the guys what it looks like every day to clock in and clock out, I’m excited for it.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the first player in the NBA’s 20-season club, getting there in 1988-89. Robert Parish followed in 1995-96 (and played a 21st season as well). Kevin Willis played 21 seasons, with his career ending in 2006-07.
The rest of the entrants into the club have all come in the past decade: Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter (the league’s first 22-year player before James tied that mark last year), Jamal Crawford, Udonis Haslem, James, Paul and soon, Lowry.
What the likes of James, Paul and Lowry have done, and how they’ve done it, has been noticed by everyone — veteran and younger players alike.
“I’m asking and taking advice from these guys, and I want to take even more advice from them in the future,” said San Antonio center Victor Wembanyama, who is going into his third season. “They’re definitely examples.”
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is entering his 13th season, pointed out that constant innovation in medicine, recovery, technology and more has made it possible for players to extend their careers if they choose to put in the effort.
“At this point, if you don’t follow the blueprint that guys like Vince Carter, Dirk, LeBron … if you don’t follow that blueprint, I don’t know what blueprint you should follow,” Antetokounmpo said. “Those guys have been playing at a high level for so many years, they’ve been taking such good care of their body, they have their own physio, they have their chef.
“You know how you sit down with your financial advisor four times a year and you go through your finances? I think you should sit down with your doctors and your physios four times a year, minimum, to talk about what you want from your body.”
Lowry is back with the 76ers for the second straight season, though he has signed with another team as well — Amazon Prime Video, which he’s joining as an analyst this season, even while still playing. It’s a multiyear deal with one of the NBA’s new broadcast partners, with the assumption that when he stops playing he’ll simply slide into a bigger analysis role.
He’ll debut on Prime next week. But his mind is fully on his 20th season playing in the NBA, not his first season on TV talking about hoops.
“I love the game of basketball, and I have had the ability to play professional basketball for 20 years and basketball my whole life,” Lowry said. “When you wake up every day, you should still be motivated to play basketball. … And I have some unbelievable teammates. … That’s my motivation. I just want to continue to give what I’ve learned for as long as I can.”