I love stats like this: LeBron James has played against 35% of all of the players that have ever played in the NBA. I’m curious if there’s an older player who played with James in 2003 and how much of NBA history the two of them collectively span.
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Here's a list of the oldest NBA players during James' rookie season. Not sure how many of these he played against, but Kevin Willis' first season was 84/85, so he and James collectively span 41 of the NBA's 79 years of existence (so far).
here's the box score from Spurs v Cavs that season: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200402200CLE.html Willis played 7:10 LeBron 39:37 so they did share the court!
Carrying this back further, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the oldest player in Willis' rookie season. Abdul-Jabbar's rookie season was 1969-70. Bob Cousy was the oldest player in Abdul-Jabbar's first season. Cousy's rookie year was 1950-51, just four years after the NBA was founded. Four players that span nearly the entire history of the NBA. I imagine that between the four of them, they either played with or against almost every NBA player ever.
Cousy is still alive at 97.
It's like the lineage of Jesus in the Gospels, tracing back to David and Abraham. ; )
Kevin Willis played with both of James Tyler's grandchildren.
*John Tyler?
*James Taylor?
Yes to both
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