The players that were drafted in the early to mid 2000’s will be on the last legs of their career very soon, and this season has made that very apparent for some. Icons like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul are coming to the end of their illustrious careers. All six players were named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team and have been the defining players for the past two-plus decades. The decline in their games and abilities however has been made more and more apparent throughout the last few years, leading to a lot of speculation over how long each player has left.

The most notable players of that list are without question LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry. Together, these three players defined an entire era of the NBA from 2011 all the way to 2022. For eleven years straight, the NBA Finals featured at least one of those three players. 2015 to 2016 saw just Curry and LeBron competing for the title, an all-time memorable series which featured one of the most memorable calls in NBA history with the “blocked by James” call by the one and only Mike Breen.

But then the infamous trade in the 2016 offseason saw the pairing of Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, who defeated the Cavaliers and James in the Finals both in 2017 and 2018. Both Durant and Curry would appear in the 2019 Finals as well, but would ultimately lose to the Toronto Raptors, ending their dominant championship run together. James would win the 2020 Finals with the Lakers and capture his fourth title the following year, while Curry would pick up his fourth championship in 2022.

Future Stars of the NBA

Players such as Anthony Edwards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, and Victor Wembanyama are the most notable young talent in the NBA today and carry a heavy burden on their shoulders in years to come. A huge part of NBA history will be in the past as the legacies of James, Curry, and Durant come to an end. They will be joined by a long list of stars and legends very soon such as James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Al Horford, DeMar Derozan, Kyle Lowry, Chris Paul, Mike Conley, Jrue Holiday, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Brook Lopez.

The future of the NBA rests on the shoulders of the current rising talent and future superstars of the league, and that weight will get increasingly heavy in the next two or three years to come. One would assume that at least LeBron will have retired by then, most likely followed by Durant, Curry, Draymond Green, and then slowly the rest from the list above.

With such a long chapter in the history of the NBA closing, is the future of the NBA in good hands with the rising talent we’re seeing throughout this season into these playoffs?