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Recently, I saw a screenshot of someone’s post on Reddit, which read, “We [were] going crazy for LeBron’s 20th season [a] couple of years ago, why aren’t we doing this for Chris Paul?”

To which I respond simply by stating the following: Christopher Emmanuel Paul is not LeBron Raymone James. In his 20th season, LeBron averaged 26 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds a game. He was an All-Star and made an All-NBA team. Meanwhile, Chris Paul has averaged less than 10 points a game while dishing out a commendable, but lower than his career average, 7 assists over the past couple of seasons. These two men are not the same.

Now, none of this is to diminish Chris Paul’s accomplishments, and we should celebrate the fact that he’s been able to continue playing at an effective level even 20 years later. There are players far younger than him doing far less (ahem, Ben Simmons). It’s also impressive that he was able to play all 82 games this past season, the first time in his career, while still averaging nearly 30 minutes a game. It’s obvious he still plays a critical role for the Spurs, and it’s going to be interesting to see how far he and Wemby can go this upcoming season. 

But let’s not get it twisted—LeBron is LeBron. In year 23, the man is most likely going to continue to average 25/7/7. He’s most certainly going to be an All-Star for the 22nd time and will most likely once again be selected for an All-NBA team. He’s also going to continue to be the biggest box-office draw if the Lakers make it to the playoffs, and Adam Silver is going to sweat profusely once the man eventually retires—which, for the sake of all of us, haters included, I hope isn’t for a long time (at least not until Zhuri makes it to the league).