Lakers superstar LeBron James' dunks are defying gravity and logic in Year 19

Gilbert McGregor

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Lakers superstar LeBron James' dunks are defying gravity and logic in Year 19 image

On a nightly basis, LeBron James is sure to deliver a highlight to make you question the concept of time.

Selected first overall in the draft 18 years ago, James is now 19 seasons into his illustrious NBA career and entered the 2021-22 NBA season as the league's fourth-oldest player. Even though he'll turn 37 on Dec. 30, LeBron ranked third in NBA.com's preseason ranking of the league's best players.

MORE: Who are the best players entering the 2021-22 NBA season? 

That's just not normal.

37 is far from old in the real world, but the NBA world is a much different story. In the league's 75-year history, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Karl Malone averaged 20-plus points per game at 37 or older. LeBron, who's averaging 24.8 points through six games this season, stands to add his name to that list by the year's end.

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Scoring is one thing, but where James truly defies logic is with his athleticism, which is still elite despite the fact he's appeared in nearly 1,600 NBA games (regular season and postseason). Logically speaking, no one with that kind of mileage on their body should be able to complete alley-oop finishes like this:

And this combination of strength and bounce just isn't fair:

Just six games into his 19th season, LeBron has already done enough to warrant a two-minute reel of his best above-the-rim finishes.

Each time you would think LeBron might take a step back and fall off, he seemingly bounces back even stronger to distort our sense of time and any related notions surrounding a decline in performance and athleticism.

Call it what you want, but understand we've never seen anything like LeBron before, and we'll probably never see anything like him again. There's definitely more to come.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs.

Gilbert McGregor

Gilbert McGregor Photo

Gilbert McGregor first joined The Sporting News in 2018 as a content producer for Global editions of NBA.com. Before covering the game, McGregor played basketball collegiately at Wake Forest, graduating with a Communication degree in 2016. McGregor began covering the NBA during the 2017-18 season and has been on hand for a number of league events.