11 NBA iron men who played all 82 games this season, including an old and tiny Chris Paul

Load management has been a dirty word in the NBA ever since Gregg Popovich started resting his starters during regular season games to keep the San Antonio Spurs fresh for their 2010s championship runs. These days, most of the NBA has realized the chase for a ring is a marathon, not a sprint, and it doesn’t benefit anyone to run players into the ground during the dog days of the season.

Not every NBA player wants to take games off, though. There were 11 players who finished the 2024-2025 regular season playing 82 games. These players range from rookies who are still teenagers to a future Hall of Fame inductee on the brink of his 40th birthday. The NBA’s iron men have a wide range of roles and responsibilities, but all of them showed up to work every single game during an eternal regular season.

Here are the 11 players to play all 82 games in the NBA during the 2024-2025 season.

Mikal Bridges, G/F, New York Knicks

Bridges has never missed a game in his NBA career. He’s appeared in every game for all seven of his NBA seasons. His first year on the Knicks was the most physically demanding year of his career: Bridges led the league with 3,036 total minutes, the most for an NBA player since the 2015-2016 season when James Harden played 3,124 minutes. Bridges asked head coach Tom Thibodeau to chill on the starters minutes during the regular season, but Thibs has no chill. Bridges will be counted on to take on tough defensive assignments and provide secondary scoring during the Knicks’ playoff run.

Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images

Chris Paul, G, San Antonio Spurs

Paul is the first player to ever appear in all 82 games in Year 20 of his career. CP3 remains an ageless wonder as he readies to turn 40 years old in May. The chips should be stacked against Paul as a small guard with limited athleticism this late in his career, but he remains one of the smartest and savviest players in the league while still having a high skill level. He started every game for San Antonio and finished the year averaging 8.8 points and 7.4 assists per game on 37.7 percent shooting from three-point range.

Bub Carrington, G, Washington Wizards

Carrington was the No. 14 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft coming out of Pitt. He’s one of the youngest players in the league (he doesn’t turn 20 years old until July), but that didn’t stop him from appearing in every game this season. We had Carrington ranked as the 11th best rookie in the league this year for his pull-up shooting and pinch of playmaking. The Wizards remain very far from contention, but Carrington should be a rotation piece and maybe even a starter for them moving forward.

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Jalen Green, G, Houston Rockets

Green is one of the most polarizing players in the league as a microwave scorer who tends to do his best work later in the season when teams are tanking or resting starters. Still, the 23-year-old guard started every game for a Houston team that stunned the league by grabbing the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Green averaged 21 points per game on 54.5 percent true shooting, which is a few points below league-average. The former No. 2 overall pick will continue to be under the microscope in the playoffs, and needs to prove he can score efficiently in games that matter.

Malik Beasley, G, Detroit Pistons

Beasley was one of the best signings of the offseason, and should be considered a serious candidate to win NBA Sixth Man of the Year. His elite shooting ability has been a crucial part of the Pistons’ rise into a playoff team this year, giving star guard Cade Cunningham a sniper to space the floor and provide efficient scoring. Beasley made the second-most threes in the NBA this year with 319, and he hit them at an incredible 41.6 percent rate. One of the best shooters alive, and he needs to stay hot if Detroit is going to pull off a first-round upset.

Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images

Jarrett Allen, C, Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavs’ rise into a 64-win juggernaut under new head coach Kenny Atkinson was the best story in the league. Allen is a crucial part of Cleveland’s ‘core four’ as a mobile 7-footer who shot 70 percent from the field mostly on assisted dunks while also providing rebounding and rim protection. He teams with Evan Mobley to form one of the NBA’s biggest and best front courts.

Harrison Barnes, F, San Antonio Spurs

Barnes played all 82 games for the third straight season in his first year with the Spurs. The 32-year-old had the best shooting season of his career by knocking down 43.3 percent of his three-pointers on 360 attempts. Barnes’ defense and rebounding feel like they’re declining a bit, but he’s still a useful player in a league where every team wants 6’8 forwards who can stretch the floor.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Jaden McDaniels, F, Minnesota Timberwolves

McDaniels one of the better defensive forwards in the league. His offense has been more of a mixed bag as he struggled with his outside shot this year (33 percent from three), but he remains a key piece for a Timberwolves team making another trip to the playoffs after last year’s Western Conference Finals run. Minnesota needs McDaniels to step up in the playoffs in a major way as they prepare to face the Los Angeles Lakers.

Julian Champagnie, F, San Antonio Spurs

Champagnie and his twin brother Justin (a member of the Washington Wizards) appear to have each found stable NBA homes. Julian Champagnie started 29 games for the Spurs this season as a 6’7 shooter who knocked down 37.1 percent of his attempts this year. The Spurs were the only team in the league with three players to play all 82 games.

Photo by Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Buddy Hield, G, Golden State Warriors

Hield is an underrated NBA ironman, with this marking the fourth time in his career he played in every game. The veteran guard fell off a bit after a red-hot start in his first season with the Warriors, but he still provided quick-trigger shooting from the outside by knocking down 37 percent of his threes. Hield ranks No. 16 in NBA history in made three-pointers, and at age-32 he will continue to climb the list.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker, G, Minnesota Timberwolves

Alexander-Walker is a top defensive guard who can also provide a pinch of scoring and playmaking. The 26-year-old is a free agent this summer, and is about to cash in thanks to his mix of youth (26 years old) and two-way competence. He shot the ball well by making 38.1 percent of his threes this year, and will be tasked with locking down some of the best scorers in the world in the playoffs.