November 20, 2010 – Kevin Burke

In a game like basketball where speed, agility and athleticism are paramount for success, you rarely see guys that are very productive as they enter their mid-late 30s. Regardless of how many MVPs, scoring titles or All-Star appearances an NBA player will accumulate in his career, there’s one thing that none of them can escape: father time. However, he seems to impact everyone differently.

The oldest player in the NBA right now is Shaquille O’Neal at age 38, so naturally his production has fallen off dramatically over the years. In fact, I think a big reason why he’s still around is because he’s Shaq. However, he’s a rare case because his size forced him to slow down sooner than most.

Guys don’t really play into their 40s that often because at that age, their productivity is usually nonexistent. You used to see it with guys like Kareem (retired at age 41), Robert Parish (hung it up at age 43), and Kevin Willis (called it quits at age 44) who played beyond 40, at a respectable level. But I think playing into your 40s has become frowned upon. Almost as if guys will feel embarrassed if they play that long.

A few guys in the league now who are well in their 30s are still producing for their respective teams at a very high level, and while they’ve slowed down some, it looks like they could still produce at 40. I don’t just mean play at 40, because anyone can simply just take up space into their 40s. I actually mean produce. Here are three guys in their 30s that could still be productive after hitting 40.

Heading into this season, Grant Hill had missed a total of 362 games throughout his 15-year, injury prone career. That’s equivalent to almost 4 and a half years worth of game action missed. That has certainly helped in him remaining fresh as he has gotten deeper into his 30s and closer to 40. In fact, he has played a full 82-game schedule just once. Even at 38, he still looks like he has at least a couple of years left in the tank and is still a valuable contributor for the Suns. If in two years, when Grant is 40, and he’s still playing, I wouldn’t be that surprised to see him out there. He’s 38 but probably has 33 year old legs.

It’s almost as if Ray has become more valuable as the calendar has turned. He’s always been a very good player who was more than capable to taking the ball to the rim and finishing, but that was never what he was most noted for. Obviously, I’m referring to his flawless 3-point shooting. In his role on the Celtics, he is not asked to drive in order to get his shots. Rondo will find him. And find him he does. Ray can still put the ball on the floor but he simply doesn’t need to. In the next few months, he’ll surpass Reggie Miller for the most 3-pointers made in NBA history. He’s still in great shape and shoots the ball just as well as he ever has. At this point of his career, his game isn’t predicated upon speed. It’s all about his shooting. That said, I think he could easily play 5 more seasons. If that’s the case, he’ll put that 3-point record so far out of reach that it may never even be approached.

J-Kidd is rare because here’s a guy who, for most of his career, was able to get by on his quickness and court vision. While he still has eyes in the back of his head, he can still get up and down the court (albeit not quite as fast). In his best offensive year, Jason averaged almost 19ppg for the Nets back in 2002 – 2003 (the year after he was robbed of an MVP). But that offense is a nice-to-have when you get that from him because we all know that his best attribute is being a facilitator. In fact, he is amongst the league leaders in assists so far this year with 9.8 per game which is above his career average of 9.2. He’s scoring roughly 9 points a game, but you can live with that. I don’t know about you, but I think he’s good for 3 more years because he’ll always average at least 9 assists no matter how old he is.

If you’re looking for your everyday, predictable basketball talk, then go somewhere else, because Kevin Burke of The Kevin Burke Project brings provocative, thought provoking content about basketball as only he can. Kevin also hosts The Hoop Doctors weekly podcast show, which you can subscribe to for free on iTunes. Follow Kevin on Twitter and Facebook