Getty Images/Ringer illustration For nearly two decades, James and Curry have been the NBA's two defining stars, but Father Time is approaching quickly. Will fate give us one more clash? When a particular brand of greatness persists for more than two decades, as LeBron James's career has, certain real-time moments can feel like inadvertent communes with the past. Watching James freely and calmly dismantle the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday in the final game of the 2023-24 regular season, I found myself thinking about 2015 and the luxuries LeBron possesses today, at 39, that he couldn't access then at the ripe old age of 30. In other words, I was beside myself after witnessing LeBron's latest feat of time-bending. Nine years ago, against the Warriors in the 2015 Finals, LeBron largely stood alone: Kevin Love had dislocated his shoulder in the first round; Kyrie Irving fractured his kneecap in Game 1 against Golden State. In the face of a paradigm-shifting, generation-defining attack from the Warriors, James engaged in what would be dubbed caveman ball—a brutish, survivalist mode of play that prioritized quantity over quality for the first time in LeBron's career. He attempted a...