The earliest instance I can find of someone applying the phrase “lion in winter” to LeBron James came in a column by the great Russ Bengtson. It’s a really good piece — one attempting to both place LeBron in the context of antecedent superstars who’d trafficked in dominance before eventually succumbing to the ravages of time (Jordan, Magic, Bird, Shaq, Kobe, et al.) and prepare us for the inevitability of James one day joining them.
“As it turns out, LeBron will likely wind up having the same amount of time as anyone else — and he’ll use it up faster,” Bengtson wrote.