The King has taken the next step to becoming the Points King of the NBA. In a fantastic 35-point night that saw his Lakers narrowly fall the 76ers 113-112, LeBron James became only the second person ever in NBA history to break over 38,000 career points.
It’s honestly incredible how LeBron James is this good at 38 years old.
Even though this game really can go down as yet another bad Lakers night as they are closer to getting the 1st overall pick in the NBA draft than they are in making the playoffs, it’s still nice to see the King play at his very best. And especially so with such a rare achievement on the line.
In all of NBA history, only the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has garnered at least 38,000 points in his career as he finished his illustrious career with 38,387 PTS. In fact, it’s an incredibly rare to just get 30,000 career points as only 7 players in the 76-year history of the league have achieved such a feat: Kareem Abdul-Jabhar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292), Dirk Nowitzki (31,560), Wilt Chamberlin (31,419), and, of course, LeBron James (38,073).
Now, I don’t want to get into the age-old Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James “G.O.A.T.” debate as it is not only incredibly annoying and incessant these days, but also takes away from the greatness we are seeing from LeBron James is giving to us before our very eyes.
Like I mentioned earlier, there hasn’t been a player in NBA history who has been as good as James has been as not only a 38-year-old, but also in their 20th year in the league. Despite having a few injury issues in these last few years with the Lakers, there simply hasn’t been anyone who has kept his body as well persevered for as long as the great LBJ.
It’s insane how LeBron is putting up MVP stats with 29.7 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 7.0 APG in his 20th season on a horrifically bad team, no less. I mean, his starting teammates for the game against the 76ers were Troy Brown Jr. (who had 13 points that game), Thomas Bryant (who had 10 points that game), Juan Toscano-Anderson (who had 6 points that game), and Denis Schroder (who had 8 points that game).
Yeah, a far cry from the days when he was teaming up with Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen.
So, if you want to get into a discussion about who is the G.O.A.T. of longevity, there’s no question who the king is: LeBron James.
Nevertheless, it’s only a matter of time until LeBron becomes the undisputed king of point scoring and passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 points. It’s too bad that it’ll happen in a year that has been mired by so much off-court drama and on-court ineptness, though maybe his accent to 40,000 points (which I believe he can get in the next two years) will come under better circumstances.
Congratulations, LeBron, you have earned all the praise for getting such a great accomplishment.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Wikipedia Creative Commons License/Author: All-Pro Reels) (All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
