Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards now outsell some of basketball’s biggest names in jersey sales, yet networks still can’t stop pointing their cameras at LeBron James.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
That frustration boiled over on Fox Sports Radio, where NBA analyst Monse Bolaños asked why the league keeps clinging to a player everyone can already predict.
“What are they scared about? Why are you afraid to let go of LeBron and focus on the talent that is coming in that people are excited to see?” Bolaños said.
Her irritation lines up with the numbers. LeBron James, the Philadelphia 76ers forward and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, closed last season as the most-viewed player across the league’s social platforms with 2.85 billion views, giving broadcasters an easy, guaranteed hit every time his clips run.
Bolaños pushed the point further in the same appearance, arguing predictability itself has become the problem.
“We know exactly what we’re going to get with LeBron James. With all the young talent, you don’t know what you’re going to get. You would think you’d lean into that a little more because he’s at the end of his career, whether it’s two years, three years,” Bolaños said.
That remark touches on something networks seldom voice. With a two-year, $8 million deal signed in July, James is beginning his 24th season with Philadelphia, a contract so modest for his reputation that executives prioritize his public profile over his performance at this point.
The irony is that the league’s own data undercuts the fear Bolaños is describing. James missed the opening night of his career for the first time after a sciatica diagnosis in October, sitting out until his 23rd-season debut against the Utah Jazz on November 18. The league did not suffer for it.
Those early weeks still pulled more than 60 million viewers across NBC, Amazon Prime Video and ESPN, the strongest opening stretch in fifteen years, driven largely by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama and Luka Dončić, the Dallas Mavericks guard who has become one of the sport’s biggest international draws.
This change in the audience can also be seen in sales statistics. Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors guard, has made the list of most popular jerseys for 2025-26 by the NBA, but out of the top fifteen names, six are under the age of twenty-five, including newcomer Cooper Flagg, Cade Cunningham and LaMelo Ball.
However, all of this does not detract from the value of the legacy in the record books. He is close to breaking Jason Kidd’s record for third place in total assists, Gary Payton’s fifth place in steals, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record for regular season wins. He will attract the attention of the media even with just these records alone.
The tension between being a 41-year-old trying to make history and a newer generation taking over behind the scenes is precisely what Bolaños had in mind. Statistics from the league itself indicate that the time is right for such a transition, despite the lack of adaptation on the part of television networks.