A few years ago the feat was just a seed in LeBron James‘ head, two years ago it began to take shape and last year it was already a goal. This season we could be witnessing a historic moment, something that will be etched in our minds for decades to come.
As the Associated Press reminds us, when LeBron James made his NBA debut on October 29, 2003 with the Cleveland Cavalierswho lost to the Sacramento Kings, he scored 25 points. At the time, the Akron phenomenon had 2,708 players ahead of him NBA‘s all-time scoring list.
After 19 years of a monumental career, he has caught 2,707 and is just one shy of the most iconic record in league history.
Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbarwho reached his peak on April 5, 1984, can withstand the force with which James has been unseating everybody. But not for long. Both players are already separated by a small precipice, which two decades ago was an insurmountable abyss of only 1,326 points.
“To be close to breaking what is probably the most sought after and chased record in the NBA, something that many thought would never be done, well it’s an incredible and cool thing, but also humbling for me,” LeBron said.
The math is clear: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set the bar at some 38,387 points scored, a figure unattainable for all mortals, for everybody? No. LeBron is on 37,062 points.
If we take into account his career scoring average of 27.1 points per game, he needs 49 games left to achieve it. But if we take last season’s 30.3 points as a reference, then 44 will be enough for him. If injuries spare him and he doesn’t miss any games, by the second half of January, he’ll be there.
When LeBron has broken the record, it is only a matter of time before he does so, he will be very close to 39,000 points and if he continues for one more season he might even get closer to 40,000, that is, he will leave a legacy for many generations, just as his predecessor has done.
There is talk of the threat of players like Luka Doncic or Ja Morantyoung compulsive scorers, but perhaps the player destined to dethrone LeBronas happened in his day with Abdul-Jabbar, has not yet been born.
When the Lakers center set his mark in April ’84, James was still a few months away from coming into the world (December). It was another era, another basketball.
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