Who are the greatest sportsmen in history… at the age of 38?

The best soups are made in old pots. A somewhat truncated maxim that it is important to correct. It’s not in old pots that we make the best soups, proof is that a young basketball player will always be more coveted than a man at the end, but old pots can still make excellent soups. All the importance of a good shade.

Is LeBron James the ultimate sportsman? 38 years old today, 1000 lives confined in one, and a career that does not even run out of steam a little. His collective situation is not ideal: the Lakers are in 13th place in the Western Conference with a record of 14 wins for 21 losses. Not sure, however, that it is LeBron’s performance that keeps the Boeing Lakers on the ground. On the contrary, they weigh in the good sense of the term. What other 38-year-old basketball player (just this criterion eliminates many people), with 19 NBA seasons in his retro, still poses averages of 27.8 points at 50% shooting, 8.8 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.1 interceptions? All while having played 27 of the 35 games of this first part of the season? Person. If we want to find LeBron a brother of longevity, we must extend the search to other sports, and then some doors may open. “Yeah but TrashTalk, in basketball there was Kevin Willis who played until he was 44! “. Not the same impact, the team was not drawn around him. He was an experienced player good for the locker room and his freelances off the bench. He stopped scoring above 10 points on average at age 37 (and at the same time lost his starting status). Nothing to do with the central piece that is still LeBron James. All viocs, even those who have known a prime at 30 points on average, have collapsed under the weight of age. Wilt Chamberlain at 37? 13.2 points and 18.6 rebounds average. Not the most violent of decadence, but a collapse in its own way.

Roger Federer

That’s why it’s cool to dip into tennis, with the ancestral stone of a legendary trio. This sport is played in pairs with rackets and yellow balls the size of a small hedgehog. At 38, Roger Federer has managed to stay at the 3rd rank of the world ATP ranking, before spending a not tiptop start to the year 2020 (more operations than tournaments played). Basically we felt that it was the end, but the Swiss made the pleasure last by pushing himself to his last entrenchments. Third player in the world at 38: do we realize? Boarf us not too much since we don’t know anything about tennis, but congratulations all the same. To see if Nadal (36) and Djokovic (35) will not also always be good customers in a few years.

Floyd Mayweather

Win “fight of the century” at 38 years old by sending daron rights on Manny Pacquiao, we can say that Mayweather has a good longevity. There too, we don’t know much about boxing (can we tap our feet?) but we live enough in society to remember the enthusiasm around this fight. Hallway rumors spoke of huge cash for both fighters, like 80 million for Pacquiao and 120 for Mayweather (it’s verified). A little funny to go get the biggest wad of his career at the very end. Here again it shows the difference in interpretation of age depending on the sport. An old boxing legend who still moves well remains an exceptional dish (in this case he moved very well). While a Dwight Howard at the end you send him to other countries to see if I’m there.

Tom Brady

He won the 2015 Super Bowl when he… 37 ans. This old ball launcher is not making it easy for us. It’s vaaaaa it’s the year of his 38th birthday. We can make an exception so as not to snub one of the sportsmen with the most impressive longevity of the solar system. Especially since he will still be winner and MVP of the Superbowl at 39 ans. Just to make us sweat decidedly. The position of quarterback is not the most physical there is, it allows old people to push the retirement age a little (we don’t know, we say nonsense), but Tom’s passes Brady… Vista sweets, bell-shaped, distributed with incredible precision and from very, very far away (we say random stuff). Nice mention for Barry Bonds and Peyton Manning who could also have appeared in this selection.

Ryan Giggs

The daron of your daron. argue a 25-game Premier League season for 2 goals and 8 assists when you are 38 years old and with squeaky joints, the feat is crazy. We could have stalled Francesco Totti in his place, who was still scoring in the Champions League at the same age, but the English league has its reasons that reason ignores and we don’t want to justify ourselves, that’s all. In addition Ryan Giggs is Welsh and there is a dragon on the flag of Wales, but in Swedish mythology the dragon is considered the personification of immortality. We are in the theme (everything is false).

Sue Bird

Best point guard in WNBA history, still 10 points and 7 assists on average at 38, champion the previous season, re-champion at 39 berges, absolute legend of the Seattle Storm. The great lady retired last September at the age of 41, when honestly her stats did not push her towards the exit. Funny to think that she could have continued for a few more years in one of the most physical women’s sports leagues in the world. But the craziest accomplishment is that Sue Bird has never started a single game of her WNBA career on the bench: 580 games, 580 starts, even in her last year at 41. Rather go on your knees than die standing up, or something like that.

Valentino Rossi

What a crazy this Valentino. In 2017, the year before the World Cup in Russia, even if it has nothing to do with it, the motorcyclist sponsor Dainese signs his last Grand Prix victory at the age of 38, on one of his favorite circuits in Assen in the Netherlands. Big points at 548 km / h (not at all), and arms raised at the finish, happy to win on an extremely high plateau as he flirts with his forties. Legend never dieeven if suddenly he won’t win again afterwards.

Jaromir Jagr

He started his NHL career in 90 and ended it in… 2018. Perhaps THE athlete with the most impressive longevity. At the beginning of December, he even put on his skates in the Czech first division with the club he owns. His age ? 50 ans. The guy is a little different from the criterion of this selection, he offers himself a second career after his 38 years. It must smell like seal under the jumpsuit.

Serena Williams

Tennis is over for this great lady, except that in 2020, two years before retiring, Serena Williams won his only title for three years. It was in Auckland, New Zealand, and with one stone two incredible actions, the tennis player then decided to donate her check for $43,000 to the victims of the fires in Eastern Australia. You’re there, you can get a little more fluff before putting the racquet back (and it’s been a while since you won), but you prefer to give everything for the good cause. We applaud him loudly *clap clap clap*.

Benjamin Nivet

A picture is worth a thousand words.