It feels like some players are never meant to retire. Sports pundits have been predicting Tom Brady’s decline for years now. Lebron James was foretold to fall off after his supposed prime in Miami and again after he left Cleveland a second time. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Serena Williams, Jaromir Jagr, and an increasing number of athletes are playing at a high level well past their athletic primes. Is this phenomenon simply recency bias or the development of better dietary and recovery practices, lengthening the careers of the world’s best athletes?
Success begets success in the case of many of these athletes.