LeBron James' 16-year streak on the line in Olympics semifinal

LeBron James will be putting a 16-year streak on the line when the Team USA men's basketball team plays Serbia in the semifinals at the Summer Olympics in Paris on Thursday.

James missed the playoffs in both of his first two NBA seasons from 2003-05 and played limited minutes off Team USA's bench during its third-place finish at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.

His second winner-take-all defeat came during Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Detroit Pistons and the most recent setback in that situation came on May 18, 2008 , in Boston. Despite James' game-high 45 points, his Cleveland Cavaliers fell to Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and the Celtics, 97-92.

The Americans bounced back from their shocking performance in Athens by capturing gold at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Though the Cavaliers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009 and the conference semifinals in 2010, none of their playoff series went to seven games. James famously "took his talents to South Beach" that offseason and made it to the NBA Finals in 2011 alongside Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, though none of the postseason series went past six games.

James' next do-or-die contest came on June 9, 2012, as he exacted revenge on the Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, 101-88. James posted a game-high 31 points and 12 boards as Miami eventually defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals.

The NBA's all-time leading scorer picked up more elimination-game victories at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, as Team USA won their second straight gold medal.

James didn't compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio or the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo (which took place in 2021), though the Americans won two more golds.

King James led the Heat to another championship in 2013, a run that featured Game 7 wins over the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. None of Miami's four playoff series in 2014 went the distance, as the team lost to the Spurs in a rematch in the championship round.

James returned to the Cavs ahead of the 2014-15 campaign and, despite four straight appearances against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals from 2015-18, the 20-time All-Star had limited Game 7 opportunities.

James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love had two sweeps and a six-game series win on their way to the 2015 NBA Finals, before losing to the Warriors in six contests. They swept their way to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016 before eliminating the Toronto Raptors in six games.

After falling behind 3-1 to the Dubs, Cleveland mounted one of the Association's all-time comebacks and dethroned Golden State in seven games.

The Cavs had no seven-game series in 2017, but had two sets go all the way in 2018, defeating the Pacers and Celtics in the first round and conference finals, respectively.

James' 2018-19 season with the Los Angeles Lakers resulted in his first non-playoff campaign in 14 years. The team then captured the title in the NBA Bubble in 2020, with none of their four series going seven games.

The Lakers won their lone play-in tournament game in 2021 before bowing out to the Phoenix Suns in the first round in six contests. Los Angeles had a disastrous 2021-22 campaign and failed to qualify for the play-in tournament before winning its only play-in contest in 2023. Then the Lakers knocked off the Memphis Grizzlies and Warriors in six games apiece before falling to the eventual-champion Denver Nuggets in a Western Conference Finals sweep.

Los Angeles went 6-0 during the inaugural in-season tournament last season, defeating the New Orleans Pelicans in December for the crown.