In 2023, LeBron James returned from a foot injury to play his 1,411th NBA game. That put him at 9th in a very underrated list – the total number of career games played. Robert Parish has been at the top of this list for three decades with 1.611 games across a 21-year career. In 2023, too, cynics were convinced the Akron Hammer would not come close to that record and retire in his thirties. In 2024, when he suited up next to his son, Bronny, a first in NBA history, it was a slap on every critic’s face. At 40, he’s still playing and has championship chances alive with Luka Doncic suddenly arriving like a plot twist.

LeBron’s already surpassed Parish (and even Grey’s Anatomy, the LeBron of TV shows) in number of seasons played. And the 2025-26 season brings King James very close to an undefeated record. Currently, he has played 1,562 NBA games. That’s two more than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who’s third place on the list, and formerly the all-time leading scorer of the league until James extended his tally beyond 42,000 points.

Now in second place for total career appearances, James needs to merely play 50 games to take that number to 1,612 and break a record that’s been intact for 28 long years. Here’s an on-screen graphic from the Lakers-Warriors game today at Chase Center that left a few jaws dropped.

On April 6, 1996, during his last season with the Charlotte Hornets, Robert Parish surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leader in games played. Interestingly enough, Parish built an underrated championship resume competing against the Kareem and the Showtime Lakers on the Boston Celtics.

He’d go on to win his final NBA championship with Michael Jordan (played 1,072 games and ranked 113 on the list on account of retiring thrice) and the Bulls before retiring in 1997. Parish had extended his record to 1,611 by then. In the modern NBA, only Vince Carter came close with 1,541 games, and he’s stuck in fourth place!

Like the scoring record, though, fans are sure that LeBron James will even make this record unreachable. However, the guy himself told us to pull back a little.

Bronny and Bryce aren’t extending LeBron James’ career

In 2023, the narrative changed from ‘when will LeBron James retire’ to ‘LeBron James won’t retire till his sons become his teammates.’ Bronny was selected in the second round of the 2024 draft, and a year ago, the James family made history as the first father-son duo to become teammates in the NBA.

Meanwhile, Bron and Savannah sent their second kid to college. Bryce is about to start his first college season with the Arizona Wildcats and already participated in the Red-Blue showcase with Uncle Shaq (1207 games played and 51st on the All-time apperance list) in attendance and Arizona alum, Rob Gronkowski, upto some slam dunk antics. It doesn’t seem like Bryce is keen on a ‘one and done’ route like Bronny to head to the NBA early.

That delays the idea that Bryce would play alongside his brother and dad in the NBA at the same time.

But on his 23rd Media Day, LeBron James himself clarified that this is not the family’s goal!

“I’m not sitting here, no I’m not waiting on Bryce,” LeBron said. “I don’t know what his timeline is, he’s his own young man now, he’s down in Tucson. We’ll see what happens, this year, next year, but he has his own timeline, I got my timeline, and I don’t know if they quite match up. But we’ll see.”

To be clear, LeBron James isn’t talking about retiring anytime soon at all. Bronny and Bryce aren’t factors in his retirement decision. The King is going to play for as long as he wants. And he’s going to set a new all-time NBA appearance record while doing that casually. What do you think?