At 41, LeBron James is turning back the clock and taking the Lakers on a storybook playoff run

LeBron James and the Lakers are headed to a conference semi-final series against Oklahoma City. Photograph: Ashley Landis/AP

But the story of the series was James, who, in a critical Game 3, not only got a gutsy steal on the Rockets’ Reed Shephard and hit a miracle of a three-pointer at the end of regulation, forcing the game to overtime (and ultimately a win), but did so mere minutes after going on a 10-0 Lakers run with his own son, including a senior-to-junior highlight alley oop. Throughout the series, James turned back the clock on both ends, averaging 23 points, eight rebounds and seven assists with two steals per game. He was, by any measure, the best player on the floor. To say that no one has ever done what he’s doing at this age is an understatement. The truth is, no one has even come close.

“I’ve done it throughout my career, but they still have to accept it,” James said in the locker room after Game 6, on slotting back into a leadership role for the team on which he’d taken a step back. “For them to allow me to lead them, that means a lot to me.” Redick, clearly moved after witnessing, first-hand, yet another chapter in the LeBron James storybook, could only shake his head. “For him to do it again, to answer the bell again, it’s really … it’s baffling, in some ways,” Redick said Friday night, attempting to stifle a grin. “The leadership aspect, he just has this ability to set the tone for the entire group, and he did that again tonight, and our guys responded. And I’m really happy for him.”

Father Time is undefeated, so the saying goes. But, as it turns out, his record isn’t quite so simple. James, well into his third decade as the face of the league and anywhere between 10 to 20 years older than most of his competitors, has proved a formidable challenger. “I’m kicking his ass,” James deadpanned, chuckling, after the series clincher. Twenty-three rounds in, he has Time on the ropes.

Reaves, who was able to return from a severe oblique strain and provide reinforcements for the final two games of the series, says he doesn’t take what James is doing for granted. “I told him after the game, I’d like to think we have a pretty good relationship, [so] I went over to him and I was like, ‘You’re insane. The stuff that you’re doing … It’s not normal,’” he said. “With age, or whatever, he’s been in the league for 23 years … The way he can [still] control a game, it’s impressive. I don’t think you can say in words how special he was, not just tonight, but this series, this year. I’m just happy that I don’t have to play against him.”

The Lakers will go on to face the aforementioned thorn in their side, the Thunder, in the Western Conference semi-finals. Certainly, this would not have been part of the plan, had Los Angeles had their druthers about a round-two opponent, especially with Dončić still sidelined. But, then again, nothing for Los Angeles went according to plan this year. It was going to be a transitional year, until things started to click, and the chemistry was too potent to deny. Then it was destined to be a tale of woe, a “what if?” footnote in the briefly intersecting careers of two megastars at different points in their trajectories in James and Dončić. In any of a myriad possible timelines, this wasn’t LeBron James’s team to carry. In all but one of them, we had seen the last of a superhero run from him in the NBA postseason.

None of this was supposed to happen. But the basketball gods work in mysterious ways, and for the moment, the story isn’t over quite yet.