{"id":39918,"date":"2023-02-08T11:31:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T10:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/?p=39918"},"modified":"2023-02-08T12:26:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T11:26:54","slug":"king-james-lebron-breaks-nba-record-to-become-highest-scoring-player-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/king-james-lebron-breaks-nba-record-to-become-highest-scoring-player-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"KING JAMES: Lebron breaks NBA record to become highest scoring player of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The burning question entering\u00a0Tuesday\u2019s contest between the Lakers and the Thunder\u00a0was whether LeBron James could score the 36 points he needed to finally break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s career NBA scoring record.<\/p>\n<p>In true LeBron fashion, he didn\u2019t even need a full game.<\/p>\n<p>James sank a 21-foot turnaround with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter at Crypto.com Arena, giving him 16 points in the period, the necessary 36 for the game and 38,388 for his illustrious career \u2014 now more than any other player in NBA history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never thought anybody could beat Kareem\u2019s record,\u201d Magic Johnson said during a congratulatory clip, speaking for most NBA observers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">38,388 POINTS<\/p>\n<p>LeBron James hits the fadeaway jumper to become the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ScoringKing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#ScoringKing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P5LyTZAZn3\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/P5LyTZAZn3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1623185295481966592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That includes James, who said in the run-up to Tuesday\u2019s game that he never seriously contemplated besting Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s record until recently given how unreachable it felt.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What a night.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ScoringKing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#ScoringKing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hsvuOeiNgv\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/hsvuOeiNgv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1623230987403501569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But James, who also played multiple stints in Cleveland bracketing a stretch in Miami, has followed the same path as his fellow Lakers star with consistent, high-level excellence and historic longevity.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/carlo-ancelotti-laments-constant-racist-abuse-towards-vinicius-junior\/\">Carlo Ancelotti laments constant racist abuse towards Vinicius Junior<\/a><\/p>\n<p>With double-figure points in all but eight career games and scoring averages of at least 25 points per game in all 19 seasons since his rookie campaign in 2003-04, James consistently chipped away at the standard Abdul-Jabbar initially set in 1984 and continued to build on until his retirement in 1989.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCongratulations to LeBron on breaking one of the most hallowed records in all of sports by becoming the NBA\u2019s all-time scoring leader,\u201d NBA commissioner Adam Silver said via statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a towering achievement that speaks to his sustained excellence over 20 seasons in the league. And quite amazingly, LeBron continues to play at an elite level and his basketball history is still being written.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>James now joins a lineage of record holders started by Joe Fulks and George Mikan, extended by Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, and Wilt Chamberlain, and seemingly put completely out of reach by Abdul-Jabbar.<\/p>\n<p>Or so we thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be in the presence of such a legend and great as Kareem, it means so much to me. It\u2019s very humbling,\u201d James said as the game was stopped for a brief ceremony at center court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo everybody who\u2019s ever been a part of this run with me the last 20 years, I just want to say thank you so much.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo the NBA \u2026 I thank you guys so much for letting me be part of something I\u2019ve always dreamed about. I would never, ever in a million years dreamed it\u2019s better than what it is tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Said Abdul-Jabbar, \u201cLeBron\u2019s career is one of someone who planned to dominate this game. He had the size and the talent to step right into the NBA, and he immediately had his effect. It\u2019s gone on for 20 years now. He has that indefinable essence that you call leadership, that people want to get behind him.<a href=\"http:\/\/google.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The burning question entering\u00a0Tuesday\u2019s contest between the Lakers and the Thunder\u00a0was whether LeBron James could score the 36 points he needed to finally break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s career NBA scoring record. In true LeBron fashion, he didn\u2019t even need a full game. James sank a 21-foot turnaround with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":39921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\u201cTo be in the presence of such a legend and great as Kareem, it means so much to me. It\u2019s very humbling.\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5,84],"tags":[3525,5243],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Fobf6UoWIAIg3WO-e1675851997757.jpeg?fit=544%2C552&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd18y-anQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39918"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39926,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39918\/revisions\/39926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportingtribune.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}