The last 30-point game of Michael Jordan’s career would come just a few weeks after his 40th birthday when he dropped 39 points in his final appearance at Madison Square Garden. Interestingly, on January 3rd, mere days after his 40th birthday, LeBron James scored 30 points too, shooting 65% from the field to help his Lakers secure the home win. With that performance, he also broke Jordan’s 22-year-old record for most career 30-point games.
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Such scoring outbursts from 40-year-olds were just as unprecedented then as they are now, but Gilbert Arenas believes that standards have changed between MJ and LeBron’s eras. He sparked an argument on the recent episode of ‘Gil’s Arena‘ that inevitably pitted James and Jordan against each other.
“We’ve seen MJ when was with the Wizards and he put up 20 [points per game]. That was impressive,” Arenas said. His former Wizards teammate Nick Young didn’t agree with Hibachi’s assessment.
“Jordan? At 40? I’m not rolling with that,” Young chimed in. “You got fat a** Jordan, came down to the Wizards. He wasn’t playing well.”
Of course, Swaggy P was drafted by the Wizards four years after Jordan retired so he never got to witness the MJ experience firsthand. Kenyon Martin did though. Jordan had averaged 22 points per game in the seven matchups he had against Martin during his Wizards days.
The 47-year-old made sure to berate Young for overlooking Mike’s twilight years, “Oh, you s**tting me? Go look at some highlights. He caught my young a** in that post. Dude played all 82 games,” Martin added.
Of course, the conversation got heated after that but Arenas took the opportunity to lay out his point- “He [Jordan] don’t look like LeBron but I’m just talking about; it was impressive then too.”
“They didn’t expect anything from MJ, they just was so happy to see a 40-year-old go out there, average 20. Why is they putting so much effort on trying to tear LeBron down for just trying to play at 40? Like, we’re pretending that he’s 20…Like, ‘He’s expected to win a championship’, he’s 40!” Agent Zero argued.
“The best 40-year old that played is LeBron, the second best is Michael Jordan.”
Gil lets it be known who the GOAT old head is 😅 pic.twitter.com/xxIeZjrnT1
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) January 11, 2025
Arenas accepted that James was already the best 40-year-old NBA player, with Jordan coming in second. But he took issue with how the King’s final years were not fully being appreciated. And unfortunately, there is some truth to that.
Comparing Michael Jordan and LeBron James’ seasons near age 40
MJ did play all 82 games in the final season of his career, but he finished the year with a 37-45 record, far away from the Playoff conversation. As far as we know, this isn’t James’ final season and he has already missed significant time due to injury. However, that’s largely because he is still expected to make a deep postseason run.
Jordan didn’t make a single Playoff appearance after leaving Chicago and as Arenas pointed out, that didn’t sour his legacy because fans were grateful to see a little more of his greatness. If LeBron doesn’t make the 2025 Playoffs though, the Lakers campaign will likely be labeled a disappointment.
It’s just a case where the expectations have risen to meet James’ incredible standards. Along with MJ’s 30-point-game record, the King also surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in all-time minutes and recorded his longest streak of consecutive triple-doubles in his 22nd season. It’s a feat in itself that the NBA’s oldest active player isn’t just expected to be great — he is expected to win.
