LeBron James is quietly having a historical season for the Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are underperforming expectations this year and are an embarrassment to the city. Russell Westbrook needs to be traded and the organization is dumb for trading for him in the first place.

That’s what all the headlines are saying nowadays.

And while those statements aren’t necessarily false, this overwhelming negativity has overshadowed something truly remarkable this year. The greatness of LeBron James.

LeBron James’ greatness should not be overshadowed by the underwhelming Los Angeles Lakers

In his age-37 season, LeBron James is averaging 29.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists while shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 35.2 percent from three-point range.

Let’s just take a second to break that down a bit.

He’s averaging more points than Trae Young, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Karl-Anthony Towns.

A better field goal percentage than Steven Adams, Kevin Durant, Towns, Bam Adebayo, Joel Embiid, Evan Mobley, and Pascal Siakam.

A better three-point percentage than D’Angelo Russell, Chris Paul, Brandon Ingram, James Harden, Myles Turner, Jayson Tatum, and Kyle Lowry.

Not to mention, he’s taking more threes (7.9 per game) than Zach LaVine, LaMelo Ball, Booker, Harden, Tyler Herro, Seth Curry, and Beal.

James is doing all this at the age of 37 years old. He would be the oldest MVP if he were to win it this year, and it’s not too crazy to imagine that he’d be in the race if the Lakers win a few more games.

This is the most points he’s averaged since the 2009-10 season, shooting the best he has from the field since the 2017-18 season, and shooting more threes than he ever has in his career.

But all that’s somehow not even the craziest part… LeBron James is averaging the second-least turnovers he has in his entire career (least since 2012-13).

The Lakers are 5-10 when James doesn’t play this year, and 19-17 when he does. While the ladder still might not seem ideal, that record would put Los Angeles at seventh in the Western Conference.

This is greatness we’ve never seen before from someone of James’ age. With Tom Brady (probably) retiring, he’s taking over as the greatest old head in sports. He’s just playing so well that no one thinks about him as old.

Just because the Lakers aren’t playing well this year doesn’t mean James’ greatness should be ignored. He’s been nothing short of incredible this. Now it’s time to see if he can make something out of this underwhelming season.