The 2025-26 NBA season is underway, and there are many stars of my youth that are almost on their way out the door. LeBron James is 40, Chris Paul is 40, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are 37, James Harden is 36, Klay Thompson and Paul George are 35 and many other stars are approaching retirement age. These stars defined a whole generation for millennials and Gen Z’ers, but I believe it’s safe to say that this era is coming to an end, and we are passing the torch. Although these stars are aging, they are still showing their talents on the court. However, we know their time is coming. So, it’s only right if we look over some of their careers.
It’s difficult to start off with anyone other than the man that defined a whole generation of basketball in James. He was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 and was the most hyped-up basketball prospect since Michael Jordan. As a 19-year-old kid straight out of high school, that can be an intimidating burden to deal with. Unlike most stars past and present that folded under the pressure of such expectations, James lived up to the hype. His first seven years in Cleveland were amazing to say the least. He won two MVPs, made six straight All-Star appearances, won Rookie of the Year in 2004, won a scoring title in 2008 and even led the Cavs to a Finals appearance in 2007. Although he had an excellent stint in Cleveland, he eventually took his talents to South Beach to join the Miami Heat.
Afterwards James went on to have a fantastic stint in Miami, where he won two more MVP awards back-to-back in 2012 and 2013. Furthermore, he won two championships back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 and even more impressively, he went to four straight NBA Finals from 2010-2014. James hit his prime in Miami and was considered by some to be the NBA’s villain; a title he embraced fully. But after he lost in the NBA Finals in 2014, he decided to leave Miami and return to Cleveland. When many asked why, he said, “I have to win one for the land.” He eventually won that championship in 2016 with the Cavaliers after a 57-25 regular season. That Finals series was remembered for one prominent thing: The Cavs came back from down 3-1 to a 73-9 Golden State Warriors team that had the best regular season record of all time. He ended up playing for two more years in Cleveland and then went to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 on a four-year, $154 million contract. He won his fourth championship against the Heat in the NBA bubble in 2020. He has continued to play for the Lakers since then, but I believe it’s fair to say he’s on his way out soon.
Another star that needs examination is Steph Curry, who at one point was arguably the face of the entire NBA. Curry is the only player in the history of the NBA to win the MVP award unanimously, as he did so in 2016. His first five seasons in the NBA were decent, but he hit his stardom in 2015, when he won his first championship, the Warriors’ first championship in 40 years. When the 2015-16 season came along, he broke the regular season record for most threes in a season with 402 and won the unanimous MVP; furthermore his Warriors broke the all time NBA wins record with 73. However, he wasn’t able to get the NBA title as he fell short to James and the Cavaliers. Although he did blow a 3-1 lead in the Finals, he was back the very next year and won back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018. As the years progressed after a 2019 Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors, the Warriors went through a rough phase of not making the playoffs for two years, but won the championship against the Boston Celtics in 2022. Since that year, the Warriors have been up and down, but Curry has still been respectable, especially with the fact that he is the oldest NBA player ever to score 100 points in his first three games.
Finally, we must also look at another big star in Kevin Durant. Durant has often been hailed as the greatest scorer of his generation. He has the evidence to back this claim up with the fact that he’s won four NBA scoring titles, all between 2009-2013. He started out with the Seattle SuperSonics when he was drafted in 2007, but the Sonics eventually moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. Although the move proved to be devastating for Seattle, it did not phase Durant in the slightest. He took the league by storm and reached the Finals in 2012 with Russell Westbrook and James Harden, losing to James and the Heat. He did return to the NBA Western Conference Finals in 2016 but ultimately blew a 3-1 lead to the Warriors. After he lost to the Warriors, he joined them, and it was viewed as making the NBA imbalanced. He went on to win two championships with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018 before leaving for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019. Not much was expected out of the Nets the first year, but they started to become a disappointment after bringing in Harden and Kyrie Irving. Durant is currently playing for the Houston Rockets, the start of a new journey.
As this era fades and a new era of stars comes in, let’s not forget how good we had it and how good we’ll have it going into the future.
