LeBron James has a mission to shut up an NBA talent evaluator for the second time

The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to get into the playoff after the regular season, and in particular, LeBron James, who is playing his year 20 in the NBA, is looking to win his fifth championship.

One NBA talent evaluator no longer seems too high on Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. The Athletic's Seth Partnow put James in the second tier of his pre-postseason tiers.

"I first wrote about the possibility of LeBron James entering the decline phase of his career more than seven years ago," Partnow wrote. "That season's championship later, I've been squeamish about making that call again. But I think it's time. This isn't said out of malice or denigration of James' career. It's just a fact that every player eventually gets old. While some age more gracefully than others, they all eventually age out of Top Tier status."

"On some level, it's a measure of James' greatness (for my money, he is one of three plausible candidates for GOAT status alongside Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but this isn't the place for that debate) that I have to spend this much time explaining why I think a 38-year old is nearer the bottom than the top of the Top 10 in the league in terms of current championship-level impact," Partnow wrote.

LeBron James will try to shut Partnow and his detractors

Entering his year 20 in the NBA, a lot of the media and detractors thought that LeBron James was done with 37 years old, but now that he has turned 38, he has shown he still has a lot to give and that he can lead a team to win the championship.