Written by: Jeonghyeon
Edited by: Justin
Visual by: Zoe
Lebron James. 4 NBA titles, 4 Finals MVPs, 4 NBA MVPs, 17 All-NBA selections, 17 All-Star selections, and the 2003-04 Rookie of the year award. A highly praised basketball player since high school, there is not a single person who plays basketball that does not know who Lebron James is. On his 20th season in the NBA so far, Lebron has consistently been one of the highest performing athletes, as he has moved through teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, the MIami Heat, and now the highly acclaimed Los Angeles Lakers. Already considered one of, if not the best player to ever play basketball, Lebron is about to extend his mark on the basketball world as he approaches the all-time points record set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 38,387 points.
At the date of publication, Lebron has currently surpassed a fellow legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has been the NBA’s leading scorer for more than 38 years. As he has approached the record, James has increased his scoring output to reach one of the highest scoring periods of his career, as he averaged around 34 points per game in January of 2023. He has also scored several high-volume points games this season, some of which feature Lebron scoring more than 40 points.
One of his notable games took place on January 16th against the Houston Rockets, in which Lebron James was able to score a whopping 48 points (his highest scoring game of the 2022-23 season). Another was on January 24th against the Los Angeles Clippers, where James scored 46 points on 9 3-pointers made on 14 3-pointers attempted. After this game, James is now the first player ever to score 40 points against all 30 NBA teams.
The most notable of his games, however, comes from his most recent game against the New York Knicks, in which he cut down his deficit to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to under 100 points. After scoring 28 points in a win against the Knicks, he managed to get 10 rebounds and 11 assists, achieving another record: the first NBA player to score a triple double in their 20th season. In addition to this, by scoring those 11 assists, James has climbed up the all-time assists leaderboard to pass both Mark Jackson and Steve Nash to rank 4th all time in assists given. At the current moment, only John Stockton, Jason Kidd, and Chris Paul have more assists than James’ 10,328. Currently, he now stands at the top of the all-time scoring list with 38,390 points.
Through these multiple achievements, Lebron James has truly shown us how gifted he still is, despite him being 38 years old in an extremely competitive, ever-evolving league. Still being one of the top scorers in the NBA, fans can only await just how much he will achieve before his eventual retirement.
*At the time of publication, Lebron James has surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scorer list.