Where were you on January 5, 2007? If you don’t remember, I can’t blame you. I mean, it was almost 19 years ago after all. Regardless, that was the last time before Wednesday night that LeBron James had scored less than 10 points in a regular-season NBA basketball game.
The streak has been one of the most prominent feathers in the cap of one of the greatest players of all time, but it couldn’t have ended more poetically. Sitting at eight points in a tie game on the final possession, James passed on taking the last shot and preserving his historic record and instead found a wide-open Rui Hachimura in the corner for a game-winning 3-point field goal at the buzzer.
“Just playing the game the right way, you always make the right play,” James said. “That’s just been my MO. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career … That’s all that matters. Win, lose, or draw, you make the right play. That’s just how I was raised. That’s how I always play the game.”
The streak was bound to come to an end any game now because of how close James was cutting it on some of his recent scoring lines. Still, it’s a bit sobering to realize that a nearly two-decade-long constant in basketball is no longer. It’s even more sobering to realize what this truly means: an era universally beloved by fans as a whole is on its way out.
RUI HACHIMURA FROM THE CORNER FOR THE WIN OFF THE LEBRON JAMES DIME!
🚨 @TISSOT BUZZER-BEATER 🚨
Everyone Gets 24 pic.twitter.com/6J38hGVRYK— NBA (@NBA) December 5, 2025
January 5, 2007
So, where was I on January 5, 2007? Well, that was a Friday, and I was still in first grade at Miller Hill-Sand Lake Elementary School in Averill Park, N.Y. So, I assume I was wreaking havoc in the classroom and making my teacher earn her post-work cocktail at the happy-hour bar all the teachers would go to across the street. If that makes you feel old, it should. I’m a month away from turning 26 and I am now eight graduating classes removed from high school.
And where was the world? Still 11 months away from the official start of the Great Recession, for one. 35 days after LeBron James was last held under 10 points, a charismatic rising senator from Illinois by the name of Barack Obama officially announced his campaign to run for President of the United States.
Not only was LeBron in his prime all the way back in January 2007, Beyoncé was too. “Irreplaceable” was in the midst of its run as the top-performing Billboard hit of the year and January 6, 2007 marked the fourth of 10 consecutive weeks the song topped the charts. The top movie in America was Ben Stiller and Robin Williams’ first Night at the Museum, which beat out Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness.
However, the most relevant moment of January 2007 occurred just four days after LeBron was held under 10 points. That was on January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs unveiled the first edition of the iPhone at the 2007 Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco.
Fun Fact: LeBron James has more Finals appearances (10) than games with single-digit points (9). pic.twitter.com/ne8fLEgo9Y
— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 5, 2025
The NBA In 2006-07
In the NBA world, the 2006-07 season, the last in which LeBron was held under 10 points in a regular-season game, feels like an entire lifetime ago. That was the season Dirk Nowitizki won his lone MVP award and Dallas won 67 games, only to get eliminated in the first round by the now-infamous “We Believe” Golden State Warriors team.
The All-Star game that season was played at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and was by all accounts a civic disaster. That weekend is arguably the reason the NBA wasn’t the first professional sports league in town. That weekend is most known in the pop culture lexicon for Charles Barkley and Dick Bavetta engaging in a smooch during the Saturday Night Festivies, but Kobe Bryant also won his second of four All-Star game MVP awards. Oh, and that was also the first season Kobe wore No. 24.
The Defensive Player of the Year that season was Marcus Camby, who last played in the NBA in 2013. Joining Camby on the All-Defensive team that season was Raja Bell, who also retired in 2013, and Bruce Bowen (!) who last played in 2009.
A Blast From The Past
LeBron still hadn’t even ascended to perennial first-team status yet, as he was demoted to the second team after a first-team selection in 2005-06. Also on that second team? Yao Ming and Gilbert Arenas.
2006-07 was Kevin Garnett’s last season in Minnesota and Ray Allen’s last season in Seattle, as both were sent to Boston to form the first Big 3 in NBA history that was actually referred to and marketed as a single three-headed entity alongside Paul Pierce, who was already stamped in Celtics lore before their arrival.
The San Antonio Spurs swept LeBron and the Cavs in the 2007 NBA Finals to win their fourth of five titles during the Gregg Poppovich-Tim Duncan and friends dynasty. Tony Parker won the Finals MVP that year and entered a highly publicized and eventually doomed marriage to Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria that summer.
It all that is a “wow, I remember that” it should give you an idea of how long
