Could Lebron James run sub-60 for 400m?

Russell was incredible. If I had to pick one NBA player in his prime, I'd pick Russell over Kobe, Labron, MJ, anyone. That guy knew how to win and relentless was his middle name. Too bad they didn't keep blocked shot stats back that. Also the greatest rebounder ever. If you've never read about him, read "The Ringleader" by Frank Deford from the SI Vault ... it was written in 1999, I think. Great feature.

I think Lebron would easily break 60 but I also think he'd have no chance in hell at sub 50. I think all the people saying sub 50 are greatly overestimating the ability of non-track athletes. Sub 50 is exceptional for an NBA player. Very few NBA players could break 5:00 in the mile as well. Many would be 6:00+.

It's been fun, but there is just too much negative energy here and too many new assholes who post bullshit and lots of great people who used to post all the time who have left or gone underground. I'm out. Life is too short. I'll be in kona. Hope to see some of you there. Paulo knows how to find me.

Charles Barkley could run sub-60.

LeBron would destroy 60 seconds.

A basketball guy from my high school who went on to be sixth man at a solid D1 college progam had no trouble running a 5:00 mile, which IMO is an equivalent effort to a :60 400m but even further out of a basketball player's specialty event range. 51-second 400s are not hard to run for athletic high-schoolers.

60-second 400 is nowhere close to the effort of a sub-5 mile.

Basketball was my best sport in high school, yet I couldn't even run much under 60.. yet I ran 22.8 consistently in the 200 (and ran 11.5 in the 100 the two times I ran it). I didn't train for the 400 at all, and neither does LeBron, so I'd say he would be right around 60.

Point is, no other sport is really going to prepare you well for a 400. Basketball might help you more for races a mile and up, but it doesn't test your anerobic endurance quite as much.

LeBron could run sub 60 with Iverson on his back whispering in his ear like Yoda did with Luke Skywalker.

chuckie - I think is one of the easier questions posed here in a while.

He would crush 60 in a 400. And he is in decent shape (his play at the end of games reflects it) and massively strong.

I think it an easy call.

Chuckie, I hate to say it but can't think of another way to...but you were just a big pu**y. Anybody on this planet, male or female, that can "run 22.8 consistently" could do repeats at 60. One 60 second lap would be an afterthought.

I went to high school in Texas and ran at the Texas Relays most years, and have gone to watch many many other years. Go there and watch the COUNTLESS little white boy 15-18 year olds 1A through 5A bang out between 52-55 second quarters on their 4x4 relays off of raw talent and tell me Lebron James couldn't do that.

Running a 400m under 60 for a male takes some speed, and a little bit of guts, that's all. That's why my fat 30 year old ass was able to do it after leading a sedentary lifestyle for the past few years(and after a few beers no less). The fact that this thread even exists is a testament to how little respect some runners have for athletes in other sports and how self absorbed they are.

chuckie d wrote:

Basketball was my best sport in high school, yet I couldn't even run much under 60.. yet I ran 22.8 consistently in the 200 (and ran 11.5 in the 100 the two times I ran it). I didn't train for the 400 at all, and neither does LeBron, so I'd say he would be right around 60.

Point is, no other sport is really going to prepare you well for a 400. Basketball might help you more for races a mile and up, but it doesn't test your anerobic endurance quite as much.

do you realize how slow a 60 second quarter is? that's like jogging to most elite athletes, which he certainly is. if you can't run a 60 with a 22.8 speed, you must have the worst endurance in history. or you're a huge pussy.

also, i don't know if you've ever played basketball (i'm guessing not), but they run an awful lot during the game, nearly constantly. even if it's in short spurts, you're still sprinting and accelerating while tired, thus building up endurance..not to mention the miles they assuredly run in the off-season to get that endurance built in.

The average 33:00 10k guy, of whom there are many on letsrun, probably struggles to barely break 60 for 400 meters....or to barely not break it. But a truly superior well-conditioned pro team sport athlete (again, not an NFL lineman, as someone pointed out) is not going to find it tough to break 60.

My all-time PR was about 57, and I'm not proud of that. Sixty for 400 meters is nothing. It's nothing.

Are you people complete and total idiots! Anybody who thinks Lebron would not be at least in the low 50s is smoking crack. The guy could crank out a 52 in basketball shoes for christ's sake. Get a grip. This is likely the best athlete on the planet and you are questioning his ability to run a highly mediocre high school time because... runners are self-important d-bags for the most part.

This is laughable. Distance runners never cease to amaze.

i would think damn near every player in the nba could break 60 if they put a decent effort, certaintly all of the guards and small fowards

My hs team didn't train worth a shit, and we had 5-7 guys who could split 50-53 in relays. Only one of them competed in sports while in college (started at pg for a Division 1 basketball team for four years). With that said, if I had 7 kids on my hs team who could run 53 seconds without much training, and all but one never even competed in a sport while in college... and we are talking about Lebron James, probably the best athlete on the planet, yeah... I think we can safely say Lebron could break 60. I'd be shocked if he couldn't break 50.

I'm fifty, graduated from a football factory in northeastern Ohio in the mid-70's. The area was chock full of 'athletes' esp. big time college football recruits and baseball signees and the 400 record at my school was about 50 flat which was typical for the area.

I'm not so sure that a battle ship like James could so easily break fifty seconds when Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State cornerbacks, receivers and safeties have not always been a lock to pull it off.

There is a huge difference between a four five forty and a forty nine second quarter.

No, it just means you don't have the anerobic capacity. Basketball requires more aerobic strength, and very few people could ever get into any kind of a full sprint on a basketball court anyway.

With some training, yes, I have no doubt LeBron could probably go somewhere around 51 or 52 at least. It's underestimated how much training you really have to do to make your body tolerate any level of lactic acid, and during the 400, the average person runs half the race feeling like they are going to die.

I ran a 60 in high school, but my PR now is a 50.93, because I actually train for the race. Mileage does very little to help for a 400 for someone who is built almost purely of fast-twitch muscle. All that does is make you good at running for a long time, but not in a sprint for a long time.

And I don't consider being a "pussy" being physically unable to finish a 400 because your legs cramp up and go into spasms after the race. Not everyone is built to run the 400 right out of the womb .. in fact, almost no one is.

Anyone have any legitimate sources on the Wilt/Russell/AI running times?