Why 27 Is the NBA’s Magic Number
May 23, 2016 By Ben Cohen
It’s increasingly a rule that the age of 27 is when basketball players are ready to win titles on teams built around them
View media item 2042981Oklahoma City Thunder players Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook celebrate against the Golden State Warriors in the first half of their NBA Western Conference Finals Game Three victory.
Twenty-seven is an eerie age for musicians. There are so many rock icons who died right before their 28th birthdays—even an abbreviated list includes Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and Jim Morrison—there’s even a name for them. They are The 27 Club.
It turns out 27 is a special age in the NBA, too, except in the opposite way. This is the age when basketball players break through.
It doesn’t matter how old they were when they entered the NBA or how long they have been playing professional basketball by the time they turn 27. It’s increasingly a rule of the NBA that the age of 27 is when stars are finally ready to win titles on teams built around them. That’s how old Isiah Thomas was in 1989, Michael Jordan was in 1991 and LeBron James was in 2012. That was even the age of Stephen Curry last year.
View media item 2042982Stephen Curry was 27 when he won his first NBA title last year.
This year’s NBA playoffs have two more players who would add themselves to The 27 Club with their first championships. They are Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, and they happen to play for the same team.
The Oklahoma City Thunder made the NBA Finals in 2012, but one of the reasons they didn’t win that year was because Durant and Westbrook were only 23, and trophies are wishful thinking for players who are that young. One of the obvious exceptions was Kobe Bryant, who was 21 at the time of his first title, but there was someone else on the Los Angeles Lakers named Shaquille O’Neal. He had recently celebrated his 28th birthday.
Now, for the first time in what feels like forever, the Golden State Warriors aren’t an inevitability to repeat as NBA champions. They’re down 2-1 to the Thunder before Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday, and even worse, they’re up against a team with Durant and Westbrook, who were born months apart and are hitting their primes at the same exact time.
