{"id":457820,"date":"2026-02-14T13:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/457820\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T13:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T13:20:22","slug":"lebron-james-becomes-oldest-nba-player-with-a-triple-double-in-lakers-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/457820\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James becomes oldest NBA player with a triple-double in Lakers’ win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LeBron James was full of joy before the Lakers<\/a> faced the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, dancing, laughing and running around, his infectious energy the driving force behind his team\u2019s easy win and yet another NBA record for a man who owns so many already.<\/p>\n

James produced a triple-double of 28 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to lead the Lakers to a 124-104 win<\/a> over the Mavericks, making him at age 41 the oldest player in league history to post a triple-double, surpassing Karl Malone.<\/p>\n

James explained why he was so full of glee before the game that left the Lakers 33-21<\/a> and in fifth place in the tough Western Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always me. I\u2019m a goofy-ass 41-year-old kid,\u201d James said, laughing. \u201cI think people should know that by now, right? That\u2019s just me. I get to play basketball. They pay me to play basketball. Why wouldn\u2019t I be happy? I get to be with my son [Bronny James] and my teammates and all these unbelievable fans that watched me throughout my career and they give me all the support and love. I enjoy what I do. Have fun. You see me on the court, see me in the back. I just love what I do. It\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

James has 123 triple-doubles in his career, tying him for fifth in league history during the regular season.<\/p>\n

\"LeBron <\/p>\n

LeBron James scores two of his 28 points.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe win. That\u2019s the most important [thing],\u201d James said. \u201cAnd to be able to do it and get the win is, that means more to me than anything. But I\u2019m very blessed to play this game, play it at a high level and I was able to do it again tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

James began the game playing with a purpose.<\/p>\n

Luka Doncic missed his fourth straight game because of left leg soreness, leaving the Lakers shorthanded again.<\/p>\n

So James took the controls, scoring 14 points in the first quarter and handing out six assists. He wanted to make sure the Lakers head into the All-Star break this weekend on a winning note, beating a Dallas team that was missing rookie sensation Cooper Flagg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was my only mindset was, how can we go into the break on a high note,\u201d James said. \u201cAnd obviously, that [Dallas] team is, no matter who\u2019s out on the floor for them, they are well-coached and they\u2019re going to play hard. And they did that for the majority of the game tonight. But just tried to set the tone and end the first half of the season on a high note.\u201d<\/p>\n

James is still playing at a high level in his NBA-record 23rd season and has given no indication on when he will retire.<\/p>\n

He was reminded of his comments from a few years ago, when James said he could play another four or five years.<\/p>\n

Does he feel the same way now?<\/p>\n

\u201cCould I? Yeah, I could. But I don\u2019t know,\u201d James said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like my game. \u2026 My game is not going anywhere. It\u2019s just my body. It\u2019s so many more factors that come with how long will I play the game. I don\u2019t think my game will ever suffer if I decided to continue to go, however long that is. <\/p>\n

\"LeBron <\/p>\n

LeBron James reacts after sinking a three-pointer against the Mavericks in the first half.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it has to be here [points to head]. How long can I stay in love with the process? Because that\u2019s always been my thing. If I can\u2019t continue to stay in love with the process, then if this goes, then my body\u2019s gonna go. And once my body goes, then it\u2019s a wrap. Then the love goes, and then the fun and all that stuff goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s what it is. It\u2019s not my game is deteriorating. Obviously there\u2019s things I could have done when I was 25 compared to 35, and 35 to 41 or 21 to 31 or 41. But I have so much knowledge of the game that I know how to still continue to make an impact even if I\u2019m not a 45, 43, 41 vertical [jump]. I can still do so many things on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

James missed the first 14 games of the season because of sciatica. It meant he was unable to train during the summer and he couldn\u2019t practice during training camp.<\/p>\n

James acknowledged that because his season started so slow he had some doubts about whether or not he could still compete at his same high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, of course. That\u2019s human nature. For sure. For sure,\u201d James said. \u201cI\u2019ve never not been able to work on my game and tune my game and detail my game for quite a while in the offseason. And I don\u2019t like coming into the season not in the best possible tune I could be in, the best possible shape I could possibly be in. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have that opportunity. Didn\u2019t have the opportunity to be in the preseason, didn\u2019t have the opportunity to have a training camp, didn\u2019t have the opportunity to have the first part of the regular season, missing the first 14 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, absolutely. Doubt creeps into your mind to see if you can get back to form and get back to making an impact. But as the weeks started going on and my body started to feel a lot better, and it was always the second day or third day after a hard workout how I was bouncing back from that, I started to realize that it\u2019s gonna take me a while to get back in rhythm. As you\u2019ve seen, probably the first few games when I came back how out of rhythm I was, but I knew it wouldn\u2019t be too long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James was full of joy before the Lakers faced the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, dancing, laughing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5117],"tags":[55563,8267,55564,196,147,5278,654,5,5448,4617,8667,2291,55565,4,343,38406,39290,55562,1936,197,55561],"class_list":{"0":"post-457820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-all-star-game-sunday","9":"tag-assist","10":"tag-ayton","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-stars","13":"tag-dallasstars","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-lakers","17":"tag-lebron-james","18":"tag-luka-doncic","19":"tag-mavericks","20":"tag-nba-season","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-point","23":"tag-reaves","24":"tag-redick","25":"tag-right-ankle-soreness","26":"tag-season","27":"tag-stars","28":"tag-triple-double"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116069192929151690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}