The numbers provide a telling story. For while every regular season loss eats away and endlessly torments Laker fans and blog sites alike, truth-be-told, there really is nothing to worry about. As of the time of this article there were 4 teams with a winning percentage above .700 and all boast an average age over 28 years old-San Antonio, Boston, Miami and the Lakers. In fact according to more data provided by both hoopism.com and espn.com, though Father Time is eventually undefeated, he really can’t hold his own against the older teams in the league; especially when it counts most.
Going back to the 1980s, Bird’s Celtics, which won three NBA titles during the decade, averaged 30.1 years of age and Magic’s Lakers, which won five titles in the decade, averaged 29.6 years of age. During Michael Jordan’s first three-peat during the 1991-1993 seasons, his Bulls’ team averaged 29.4 years of age. Meanwhile, his second three-peat run from 1996-1998, had a team which averaged 32.3 years of age. Finally, in the last 5 years the average age of each of the NBA champs was approximately 29.3 years of age with the San Antonio Spurs topping out at 31.8 years old in ’06-’07.
Quite revealing when you think about it! So, before Laker fans start losing their minds, before they start writing and calling in to their favorite radio shows or blog sites demanding this trade or that trade or that the team is too old…take a second to remember George Bernard Shaw’s famous words. Yes, youth is attractive, and fun, and fast and often furious…just like the Hare that ran circles around our tortoise earlier in the race. But just as the tortoise reminded the Hare while crossing the finish line first, in the NBA, slow and steady wins every time!
