Cavaliers star LeBron James has never played all 82 games in an NBA season. That's surprising because James is someone that looks like he's made of iron. He's been to seven straight NBA Finals, he's played over 19,000 regular season minutes during that span and has maintained an MVP level the entire time. How can someone with that level of endurance never reach 82 games?
Some of has to do with rest, and James has had minor injuries throughout his career. Remember the black mask? However, an argument can be made that never playing 82 games is why he's has been able to build up such endurance. This will be the first season he's played 3,000 minutes since 2010-11. It will also be the first time he's played an entire season.
James and the Cavs will take on the Knicks Wednesday. It's rare for Game 82 to mean something to a team led by LeBron, but there's playoff implications on the line. If the 76ers lose Tuesday or Wednesday, the Cavs can catch them in the standings and take third place in the East. This possibility eliminates any chance of James resting that final game. Besides, playing an entire season will add to his legacy.
Despite the potential benefits of rest, never playing all 82 games would be a weird hole on James resume at the end of his career. This is why, in his 15th season, he's been gunning to play every game. James denies this is his goal, but he's passed on multiple chances to rest, and he has said in the past he wants to play a full season at some point of his career.
Does James want to achieve this milestone to further cement his legacy as one of the greats? It certainly feels that way. He's said before that he has nothing left to prove, but he has to know how weird it would look for someone with his reputation to never play a full season. He's one of the most consistent superstars ever and constantly makes deep playoff runs. Someone like that has to play all 82 at least once. So nobody can ever question his stamina.
It helps that this season was the perfect storm for James to make a run. Cleveland has struggled to be consistent thanks to a poor roster structure at the beginning of the season and injuries during the latter half, which put an unexpected load on James' shoulders. He couldn't choose to rest even if he wanted to. Maybe this is why he's targeting an 82-game season. He never had to do it before.