Inside the numbers: With LeBron James turning 40, a look at statistical NBA milestones at that age

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Inside the numbers: With LeBron James turning 40, a look at statistical NBA milestones at that age

2024-12-29 23:16 Last Updated At：23:20

LeBron James turns 40 on Monday, and the Los Angeles Lakers star is about to join a small list of NBA players who have been in the league at that age.

A look at some statistical milestones for players in their 40s in NBA history:

There’s been only one 40-point game by a 40something in NBA history. That milestone belongs to by Michael Jordan.

On Feb. 21, 2003, four days after turning 40, Jordan scored 43 points for Washington in an 89-86 win over New Jersey.

There have been only seven games of 30 points or more by players after they turn 40 — Jordan has four of them, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Dirk Nowitzki all have one. The ones by Abdul-Jabbar and Malone came in playoff games.

Like 40-point games, triple doubles are extremely rare for 40-year-olds — with just one ever recorded in the league.

Karl Malone had it: 10 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists for the Los Angeles Lakers in a 103-87 win over San Antonio on Nov. 28, 2003.

Double-doubles are way more common for 40somethings. There’s been 95 of those over the years: John Stockton had 23, Robert Parish had 22, Malone had 21, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 14, Michael Jordan had eight, Dikembe Mutombo had five, and Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki each had one.

James is going to vault up this list.

Not counting Tim Duncan and Danny Schayes — they both played playoff games at 40, but never a regular season contest — there have been 29 players to score in the NBA after their 40th birthday.

And eight of those players — Juwan Howard, Charles Jones, Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Bob Cousy, Jamal Crawford, Nat Hickey and Joe Johnson — scored no more than 21 points, total, after turning 40. James might pass them all in one game.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the most points after turning 40: He scored 1,941. Only he, Robert Parish (1,706), Vince Carter (1,433) and John Stockton (1,088) have more than 1,000 points at that age.

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.

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.

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.

After James, the next NBA player to turn 40 will be San Antonio's Chris Paul — who hits the milestone on May 6. He'd have to probably be part of a second-round playoff run to play at 40 this season.

Charlotte's Taj Gibson turns 40 on June 24, so he'd have to come back next season to play at that age.

The next one from there would be Philadelphia's Kyle Lowry, who turns 40 on March 25, 2026 and would play at that age if he comes back for a 20th year next season.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Kazakhstan is into the United Cup semifinals, Iga Swiatek and Poland qualify for the final eight

2025-01-01 16:24 Last Updated At：16:31

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Kazakhstan has advanced to the United Cup mixed teams tennis tournament semifinals with a 2-1 win over over a German team playing without the injured world No. 2-ranked Alexander Zverev.

Zverev was a late scratch for Germany on Wednesday due to a biceps injury. He was scheduled to face Alexander Shevchenko but withdrew at the last minute with Kazakhstan leading the tie 1-0 after Elena Rybakina beat Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-1.

Shevchenko beat Zverev's replacement, Daniel Masur, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the tie for Kazakhstan while Zverev watched from the sidelines. Germany won the later mixed doubles.

Shevchenko took a medical timeout due to heat exhaustion while leading 1-0 in the second set. He came back from the break to dominate the rest of the match.

“It was a heat problem for sure,” Shevchenko said. “I had a bit of a headache, my head was spinning. It was a struggle this match. To play in this heat was so tough."

The United States played China on Wednesday night in the second quarterfinal in Perth. Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz led the U.S. into the quarterfinals with a win in their final round-robin match on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Gauff was scheduled to play Gao Xinyu, Fritz was to play Zhang Zhizhen and in the mixed doubles, Gauff and Fritz were to take on Zhang Shuai and Sun Fajing.

In Sydney, Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurcacz won their deciding mixed doubles match over the Czech Republic to qualify Poland for the quarterfinals.

World No. 2 Swiatek and Hurcacz beat Tomáš Macháč and Karolína Muchová 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the decider at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena. The Polish team led 5-2 before allowing the Czechs back into the first set.

In earlier singles, Macháč gave the Czech Republic the lead with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win over Hurcacz before Swiatek evened the tie with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Muchová.

Later Wednesday in Sydney, Britain played Australia for a place in the quarterfinals. In women's singles, Katie Boulter gave Britain a 1-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Olivia Gadecki. Alex de Minaur was scheduled to play Billy Harris in men's singles in an effort to level the tie for Australia.

In the mixed doubles, Boulter was scheduled to play but not de Minaur for Australia. The two players are engaged to be married.

In Sydney, Italy earlier won Group D to qualify for the quarterfinals. Winners of the past two Davis Cups and runners-up two years ago to the U.S. in the inaugural edition of the season-opening mixed teams’ event, Italy won its group without world No.1 Jannik Sinner.

All tournament play shifts to Sydney from Thursday through to Sunday's final.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis