LeBron James has thrown down 145 slam dunks in the 2016-17 NBA season, 7th most in the entire league. Only sitting behind DeAndre Jordan (247), Rudy Gobert (231), Dwight Howard (199), Giannis Antetokounmpo (194), Hassan Whiteside (157) and Clint Capela (156). All of whom are taller than King James, and have a longer standing reach, allowing dunking to be easier. For LeBron to be up with the top dunkers in the league at age 32 and in his 14th season after his body has taken a toll over the years is truly remarkable.
New career-high for LeBron James
The large number of 145 is how many throwdowns LeBron James has achieved this season, setting a new career-high. The 2016-17 season marks the season LBJ has thrown down the most dunks, doing it in one of his shortest seasons, playing in 74 games. It's quite remarkable that this happens in LeBron's 14th year, while aged 32 with many people believing he is past his athletic prime. But LeBron is always proving everyone wrong anyway, so what's new? We have seen many great jams from the King over the years, and the ones that stand out are usually those of his earlier years, in the first Cavaliers segment. But defying the odds once again, LeBron is still dunking on the league in 2017, and doing it at the highest rate of his career.
This isn't the first time in recent memory that the King has proven his athletic ability. In last years playoffs alone, LeBron recorded 43 dunks, throwing it down on the Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors and finally the Golden State Warriors. That also was a career-high for LeBron in terms of playoffs dunks. I guess that was just one way to define the King's legendary playoff run which ended in a championship for the city of Cleveland.
When will his athleticism decline?
Many have speculated over LeBron James and his athletic ability over the years. The most recent speculation has been that he has "lost a step" or "declined" athletically, but the stats tell us otherwise. He has been throwing down the highest clip of dunks over his career recently, which really prevents the media from scrutinizing his athleticism at all.
It was at just the start of the 2014-15 NBA season, in LeBron's first season back in Cleveland and according to the media, LeBron had officially lost a step athletically. He entered the season in slightly different shape due to his summer diet and workout resume and it might've negatively affected him on the court. LeBron even knew it himself, he started the season slow, not throwing down vicious dunks we were used to. He apologized, saying "I apologize I haven't been above the rim, but I'm in the lineup". This was a time a lot of us believed LeBron was fading, but through the treatment of his body and the continued excellence, LBJ is seemingly better than ever athletically in the year of 2017.