Everyone else from the 2003 NBA Draft grew old. LeBron James somehow hasn't

Jarvis Hayes doesn’t recall the last time he felt tempted to play pickup basketball. Going 1-on-1 against his teenage sons is the most that the 2003 NBA lottery pick can withstand. Anything more physically demanding requires too many jarring collisions for Hayes’ battle-weary body, too much explosive movement for his surgically repaired right knee.

“I just can’t move like I used to,” Hayes, now 44, told Yahoo Sports. “I don't want to end up in the emergency room with a popped Achilles or some other crazy injury. ” Time has caught up with 57 of the 58 players who were part of the NBA’s celebrated 2003 draft class.

Slowed by declining athleticism, lingering injuries and waning motivation, they’ve hung up their high tops and moved on to less strenuous careers, as coaches and TV analysts , investors and entrepreneurs , fruit farmers and insurance brokers . Suffering through that humbling experience has only made some of those 2003 draftees more awestruck by the one member of their class who is defying the NBA’s typical age timeline. At 41, with thinning hair and a salt-and-pepper beard, LeBron James is still ripping through the seams of the defense , still throwing down reverse windmill slams , still tallying 20-plus-point games and near triple-doubles with staggering regularity.

Even at 41, LeBron James is leading the Los Angeles Lakers in minutes played, scoring and assists in this postseason. (Photo by Joshua Gateley/Getty Images) Joshua Gateley via Getty Images With Luka Dončić sidelined by a hamstring injury and Austin Reaves unavailable for the opening four games of the series, James carried the Los Angeles Lakers past the younger, more athletic Houston Rockets in the opening round of the playoffs. The NBA’s most grizzled veteran then led all scorers with 27 points on Tuesday night as the underdog Lakers opened the Western Conference semifinals with a 108-90 loss to reigning champion Oklahoma City.