Wild photo of LeBron James’ vertical leap during Lakers-Suns game goes viral
Dec 9, 2021; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (6) warms-up prior to the game against the Memphis Grizzles at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
LeBron James continues to walk on the sky like a man half his age.
A photo taken by Ben Golliver of the Washington Post at Thursday night’s Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns game caught fire online this week. The picture showed the Lakers star James soaring over California to tip away a pass intended for Suns counterpart Kevin Durant in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. The amount of air James got on his jump was so absurd that many were left to question whether the photo was actually AI-generated.
Take a look below.
Lakers’ LeBron James skies to deflect a pass to Suns’ Kevin Durant pic.twitter.com/4xHXyA8m0w
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) October 27, 2023
You can see the TNT broadcast clip of James’ inhuman leap below (at the 8:00 mark).
James couldn’t help either but to post Golliver’s pic of him to his Instagram page. The four-time NBA champion included an alien emoji and a shushing emoji in his caption.
As has been documented extensively, James turns 39 years old later this year and is now in his 21st NBA season (one off the all-time record of 22 held by Vince Carter). From that sequence though, it doesn’t even seem like James has lost a single millimeter off his vertical from his mid-20s peak.
There has been some recent talk about the Lakers potentially cutting James’ playing time significantly this year. But if he can achieve physical feats like that during the minutes he does play, fans of the purple and gold will not have too much to complain about.
