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LeBron James has a lot to live up to as the latest face of the Los Angeles Lakers. He has the present burden of trying to bring the title back to LA, which has won the second most championships in NBA history. But there's a different Laker milestone that LeBron James is definitely keeping his eye on – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record.
Abdul-Jabbar leads NBA history with the most points scored throughout his storied career. The Captain piled up 38, 387 points in 20 total seasons playing in the NBA.
LeBron James meanwhile currently ranks third on the all-time scoring list. His impressive total of 34,087 comes from just 17 seasons, including this present one which still has yet to be finished.
That puts the King's deficit at 4,300 points shy of the overall record.
Here's what he has to do in the next couple of seasons to beat eclipse Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
LeBron is currently posting a little over 25 points a night this season. It wouldn't be absurd to assume he can replicate that production for just a few more seasons. That would mean that LeBron James would need to play in at least 172 more regular-season games to reach Kareem's seemingly untouchable mark. Seems easy enough right?
But the pandemic and its subsequent suspension of NBA basketball throws a clear wrench into the equation. The current restart in Orlando gives LeBron just eight additional regular season games to work with for the rest of this year.
The postponement of next season to a December start date could also likely result in a more condensed schedule of games to minimize strain on the players. This was the case during the last time the NBA started in December, playing in just 66 games during the 2011 – 2012 lockout shortened season. So that gives LeBron just 74 games between this season and the next – a mark that's clearly well shy of the 172 games he needs to play.
An additional 82 game season the following year still leaves him falling short by 16 full games. That would mean that LeBron would need to play at least three more additional seasons following this one.
James is already 35 years old, and turns 36 by the end of the year. He's currently only under contract until the 2021 – 2022 season which would leave the task impossible if he chooses not to extent his deal.
Not to mention the fact that he would have to stay both moderately healthy and highly productive. Although he's stayed relatively healthy this season, we saw from last year that LeBron is no longer immune to the bite of the injury bug. He missed a third of the team's contests, playing in just 55 of the total 82 games.
But despite all these hurdles, there a few reasons why LeBron might still achieve the record.
Perhaps the biggest factor in terms of whether or not LeBron James will surpass the total is his own self-awareness. In an interview last year with the Associated Press' Tim Reynolds, James shared his thoughts on approaching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“I would be lying if I said I don’t see it,” James said. “Obviously I’m not trying to say, ‘OK, well if I play this amount of time, if I average this’ … I’m not doing that because I’ve never done that with my career. I’ve always just kind of let it happen. Whatever happens, happens. But I see it. I do see it.”
During the start of the last decade, LeBron was ranked just 124th on the all-time scoring list. It was inevitable that he would rise of the list, but he's mowed down the bigger fish in recent years while still playing at a high level. He officially overtook Michael Jordan last season, and earlier this year we remember the special moment he shared on the Staples Center floor when he took Kobe Bryant's number three ranking right before his tragic death.
Aside from the obvious desire to be the overall number one all-time, there's another compelling reason why James might stick around for a while longer – his son Bronny James. In a 2018 interview with UNINTERRUPTED, here's what the King had to say about wanting to play with his son.
“You want to ask me what is the greatest achievement of my life,” James shared. “If I'm on the same court as my son in the NBA. That would be No. 1 in my lifetime as an NBA player. I've thought about it because my son is about to be 14, and he might be able to get in there a little earlier,”
LeBron James has every motivation to play for long enough to break the record. He's also notorious for keeping an air-tight training regiment to keep his body right for the seasons to come.
Despite having a lot of mileage, recent injury battles, and a couple of shortened NBA seasons to keep him further from the all-time scoring milestone, I wouldn't bet against The King.
