LeBron put up 35 points, led the West to victory, and walked off with another All-Star MVP — at 41 years old.
LeBron James scored 35 points in the NBA All-Star Game and was named the contest's MVP, leading the Western Conference to a comfortable win. The asterisk is the one nobody can ignore: he is forty-one years old.
The performance was vintage in the way the rest of the league has come to expect from him: not the highest highlights, but the most consistent shot quality, the cleanest passes, and a defensive switch in the third quarter that broke the East's rhythm.
Younger stars on both teams said afterward that they expected the night to belong to them and were not embarrassed to admit it had not. Several took the time to acknowledge how unlikely a 41-year-old MVP at this exhibition really is.
For James, the season is winding down toward yet another playoff push. For the league, the marketing department is already cutting tape — and the front offices that bet against him aging are licking their wounds.