The Four Players That Span the Entire History of the NBA
Yesterday I posted an incredible fact about LeBron James: he has played against 35% of all of the players that have ever played in the NBA. Wondering about the Great Span of the NBA, I looked for the oldest player from LeBron’s rookie season, then for the oldest player in that player’s rookie season, and so on.
What I found is that just four players span almost the entire 79-year history of the league: Bob Cousy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Willis and LeBron James.
- The NBA was founded in 1946
- Bob Cousy, played 1950-1970 (14 seasons)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, played 1969-1989 (20 seasons)
- Kevin Willis, played 1984-2007 (21 seasons)
- LeBron James, played 2003-present (22 seasons)
What’s more, all four are still alive: James is 40 years old, Willis is 62 years old, Abdul-Jabbar is 78 years old, and Cousy is 97 years old. Collectively, the four of them have either played with or against almost all of the players that have ever played in the NBA. Incredible.
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This is incredible.
Crazy!
Crazy connection! But…14 years can’t be 1950-1970. Wiki says he played till 1963, then briefly in 1970. So a larger gap, but still amazing.
(This is a safe space for nitpicking on details, right?)
Courtesy of ChatGPT, the entire NBA existence is covered by swapping these two for Cousy:
1. Red Rocha (1946–1957)
2. Bill Russell (1956–1969)
And all five were alive when Lebron started playing.
If you swap Kevin Willis out for Reggie Miller I think you get as little overlap as possible. I wonder if there's an even more efficient 5-man list.
Rocha (46-57)
Russell (56-69)
Abdul-Jabbar (69-89)
Miller* (87-05)
James (03-present)
*kdo relevancy: Reggie turned 60 yesterday and is big into gravel and MTB riding
LeBron James’ and Abdul-Jabbar’s longevity have got to be the crowning achievements of sports science in their eras.
Wow, I didn’t realize Bob Cousy went all the way to 1950. At least we were able to watch the last 3.
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