After the Los Angeles Lakers' nail-biting win over the Indiana Pacers concluded on Thursday night, LeBron James — who dropped 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists — sat 63 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
James has discussed his pursuit of the hallowed milestone umpteen times by now. On Thursday, though, he waxed poetic on the record more extensively than ever before. LeBron called Abdul-Jabbar's long-standing record one of the “greatest” in sports and likened it to the historic 1998 MLB home run chase and the slugging boom of that era.
“I think it's one of the greatest records in sports in general,” said LeBron. “I think it's up there with the home run record in baseball. Just one of those records that you just don't ever see, or think, will ever be broken. And then you end up seeing guys — Hank Aaron had had it for so long, and then you see the likes of (Sammy Sosa) and Mark McGwire and those guys start climbing that. It was like ‘Oh, man, this thing could really happen.' And you start really watching it and paying attention to it, and you're seeing Sammy or Mark McGwire go up to bat and you're like, ‘They got a chance to knock it out every single time.'”
In his 20th season, 38-year-old LeBron is averaging a staggering 30.2 points per game — 3.0 PPG higher than his career mark. On Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, he passed both Mark Jackson and Steve Nash to take over No. 4 on the league's career assists list.
“It was fun for me as a sports person, it was fun just watching those guys go up to bat and chase it,” he continued. “I grew up being a historian of all sports and understanding — I don't have the number (38.387) like planted in my head … but I know it's been Kareem, my whole life. It's pretty cool.”
LeBron will likely break the record back in Los Angeles on Tuesday vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder or on Thursday vs. the Milwaukee Bucks. The question is: Will he make history with a sky hook?
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