This year, there are going to be teenagers that will, for the first time in their lives, experience the NBA playoffs without LeBron James.
The Brooklyn Nets made it official on Friday night, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers to mathematically eliminate them from the postseason and putting an end to LeBron’s streak of 13 consecutive playoff appearances beginning in 2006.
LeBron had almost immediate success upon his NBA arrival in 2003 — he’s been an All-Star every year since his sophomore season and in the playoffs every year beginning the season after that. That streak has also culminated in three championships, and perhaps even more staggeringly, eight consecutive NBA Finals appearances from the East until this year.
The Western Conference can pose more of a challenge — the Lakers would not yet be eliminated if they played in the East, although they would still be on the outside looking in — and this year’s Lakers team isn’t as strong as some of LeBron’s teams from previous years, but it’s truly the end of an era.
The 34 year old could very well be back in the postseason next year (in fact, that’s probably the safe bet), but for now, the basketball world is still processing the playoffs without LeBron.
