The coming off-season will confirm both of those truisms. The Ageless One was his normal self during this season, and in his oh-so-brief post-season. James set records for points (totals and average), rebounds (totals and average), assists (per game) and scoring efficiency in the regular-season as a 40-year-old and followed that by averaging 25.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists and two steals while playing 40.6 minutes per game in the first round of the playoffs for the Los Angeles Lakers, playoff marks no player his age has ever touched either.

It didn’t matter though, as James and the Lakers were forcefully pushed aside by the Minnesota Timberwolves and the ascendant Anthony Edwards.

Not even the mind-bending good fortune of the Lakers’ acquisition of fellow superstar Luka Doncic could make up for the team’s lack of size against Minnesota, a consequence of trading Anthony Davis for Doncic. As good as Edwards was in the series — 26.8 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game is pretty good — the TWolves were able to withstand a horrible shooting night from their star in Game 5 (5-of-19 from the floor, 0-of-11 from three) because seven-foot-two Rudy Gobert punked an undersized Lakers lineup all night.

The towering Frenchman finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds — nine on the offensive glass — on 12-of-15 shooting as the Lakers had no answer for his size and physicality at either end of the floor.

It marks the third time in the last four seasons the Lakers and James have been one round and out in the playoffs, and the fourth year that James has fallen short of the Finals after making it to the biggest stage of the post-season nine times in 10 years during his peak.

As has become a ritual after these early exits, James was noncommittal about returning to play next season, which would be a record-tying 23rd.

“I don’t know,” he said during his post-game media conference. “I don’t have an answer to that. Something I’ll sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play.”

We’ll save everyone the drama: James, who has a $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season, won’t be leaving that on the table, even if his career earnings are $529 million, and his off-court income has made him the NBA’s first billionaire.

A much more likely scenario is he signs an extension that keeps him a Laker at least as long as his son, Bronny — who has two more years guaranteed before a team option kicks for the 2027-28 season — is under contract to the team, which would keep his Dad in the NBA for a couple of more seasons at least.

Wouldn’t 25 seasons be a nice, round number to retire on? And don’t forget that James’ other son, Bryce, will be playing for the University of Arizona next season. James has previously alluded to the possibility of playing until his youngest son is NBA-ready. “We’ll see. We’ll see,” James said earlier this season. “That would be pretty cool. It’s all about my mind and then seeing how my body reacts over these next couple of years.”

It would be a new twist on the concept of an NBA dynasty.

So James will be back, but the Lakers’ brief post-season proves that the addition of Doncic alone isn’t enough to carry a team on a deep playoff run. And if we’re looking for red flags, that the Slovenian star was hobbled by a balky back in the most critical game of the season might raise some eyebrows. Fitness, durability and his around-the-clock commitment to playing at the highest levels were the off-the-record justification for the shocking mid-season deal that sent Doncic to Los Angeles. Fair or not, the 26-year-old’s list of soft-tissue ailments is adding up.

That won’t prevent the Lakers from signing him to a contract extension — they can offer up to five years for $296 million — as soon Doncic is willing to pick up a pen, but it will add urgency to building out a roster that can compete to win in the Western Conference sooner than later.

But change will be rippling across the rest of the NBA as well.

The Milwaukee Bucks getting ousted by Indiana in five games despite a typically super-human effort from Giannis Antetokounmpo has set the clock ticking on the two-time MVP’s tenure in Wisconsin.

The Bucks are 1-9 in the past 10 playoff games Antetokounmpo has played in, going back to 2022, the season following Milwaukee’s 2021 championship. Damian Lillard will almost certainly miss all of next season after tearing his Achilles in Game 4 of the series. Brook Lopez, 37, is a free agent. The Bucks have depleted all of their meaningful draft capital trying to maintain competitive rosters around their superstar. They are a franchise at the end of the line. Their only recourse is to trade one of the top three players in the NBA while he’s still in his prime and hope the combination of players and draft assets they get in return allows their inevitable rebuild to be brief.

Antetokounmpo isn’t the only big-name talent likely on the move this summer. It’s a foregone conclusion that the Phoenix Suns will be parting ways with Kevin Durant and there is a compelling case that the best path forward for them after their reckless effort to pretend the restrictions of the collective bargaining agreement don’t exist is to trade Devin Booker, who would yield a significantly higher return than a 37-year-old Durant might.

New management in New Orleans could spell the end of Zion Williamson’s tenure there, while Trae Young (Atlanta), Lauri Markkanen (Utah) and LaMelo Ball (Charlotte) head the list of former all-stars that could be available. Domantas Sabonis in Sacramento is another.

And any of those moves could precipitate any number of secondary effects as the dam breaks.

And there are teams that have the means to do some serious shopping, with the Houston Rockets and their treasure trove of draft assets and young talent heading the least, trailed by San Antonio and Brooklyn, although the Nets have cap space to offer rather than desirable young players.

Closer to home, the Toronto Raptors will undoubtedly be active in those conversations. It’s hard to imagine Toronto winning a bidding war for Antetokounmpo, let’s say, but a conversation that starts with Scottie Barnes, their own first-round pick this season and some future picks would have to be carefully considered by the Bucks. Would a core of Antetokounmpo, Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl supplemented by the Raptors youngsters seem like a championship-level upgrade to the Bucks star? It depends on what other opportunities might be available is the only fair answer at this stage.

Regardless, the NBA wheel will continue turning, with a dwindling number of teams fighting for a championship — LeBron, Luka and the Lakers now eliminated from that contest — and the rest suddenly trying to figure out how to position themselves for next season.