24 Storylines: Sunset on LeBron-Curry-Durant era?

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We’re counting down 24 key storylines heading into the 2024-25 NBA season. Our senior analysts will dissect a new topic each day as we help you get ready for opening night on Oct. 22.
Here is storyline No. 12: 
Before we take a deep dive into the current situation and prospects of … oh … The Three Greatest Players Of This Generation and how they relate to this particular question, first we must define: What exactly is it?
It, as in finished as All-Stars? Of course not. They’re still among the world’s best.
It, as in never-again Kia MVP contenders? Hmmm.
It, as in won’t win another championship? Well, if that is indeed the definition of it, then yeah, that’s … it. That ship sailed.
We aren’t debating the merits of yesteryear, when LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant ruled the league. Their legacies are stamped, their impact crystalized forever in time and their value to recent NBA history unmatched. They are this generation’s Larry Bird-Magic Johnson-Michael Jordan combo. That’s not an overstatement.
Two of them are well into their 30s (Durant and Curry) and the other is in his 40s, peering down the other side of the hill, none representing teams projected for deep runs in 2025.
The 2024 Olympics demonstrated these three remain productive, rise-to-the-occasion stars. They stay in supreme condition, are disciplined competitors, maintain a high level of excellence and stubbornly resist heavy-handed interference from Father Time.
That’s why they stay at or near the top of the NBA’s all-time records, enjoy bigger-than-basketball popularity and should, barring injury, avoid hitting that Wall Of Age this season.
That said … they’re no longer great enough to carry a team to the end of June.
This says as much about the competition from the NBA’s rising stars (Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, etc.) as it does about the gradual yet obvious decline.
James isn’t pulling the Lakers to multiple appearances in the NBA Finals as he did with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Durant isn’t collecting Finals MVPs as he did with the Golden State Warriors. And after winning the 2022 title without Durant, Curry’s teams haven’t come anywhere close since.
Give James a bit more than Anthony Davis, and Durant more than Devin Booker, and Curry a replacement for Klay Thompson, then we’ll reassess. All three need more help than ever before and more than they did in their primes.
So yes, that’s it for these three. And that’s too bad because the best way to measure, observe and enjoy greatness is when greatness is on the biggest stage. Remove James, Curry and Durant from June and you remove a segment of their basketball soul.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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