Without warning, LeBron James is currently casting for the remake of the Benjamin Button film. In any case, that’s the impression given by the King, who has been stringing performance after performance and record after record lately. And speaking of records precisely, this end of the year 2022 offers us the opportunity to take a look at THE record par excellence: that of the greatest number of points scored in a career.
If the soon-to-be 38-year-old cyborg has missed a few games since the start of the season, his stats are unprecedented for a player playing in his 20th NBA campaign. 27 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists on average, lunar. And before his absence in Phoenix at the start of the week, Bron Bron even allowed himself to snap a series of four consecutive games at more than 30 points. Enough to spin cold sweats to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who sees his lead on the all-time scoring list melt like snow in the sun.
- 1) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 38,387 career points
- 2) LeBron James: 37,655 career points
A quick calculation to help the less mathematicians among us: that leaves between the two men only one meager difference of 732 points. That’s just over half the gap that separated them before the start of the season (1,325). In just 22 games, Bron Bron has already managed to score 593 points and may well catch up with KAJ faster than expected.
Assuming the King maintains their current pace of 27 points per game, it would therefore only take them 27-28 games to sit on the throne of one of the most prestigious records. What does it give level date? Well, to have an estimate of the match at which the record of the king of the skyhook will be exceeded, we will have to ask a serious “if”. If LeBron plays all of the Lakers’ upcoming games AND manages to maintain his production level, the estimates bring us to the February 11, while traveling in San Francisco Bay to take on Chief Curry’s Warriors.
Break the record before the All-Star Game? Possibly, therefore. But unlikely if one tries to be pragmatic. Let’s try to predict the games missed by LeBron: in 30 Angelinos games, the King had to miss eight times. If he were to keep the same “rate” of absences, he would probably have to wait until March, maybe the 10th when the Raptors host. And even in the event that LeBron were to “fall” to 25 points on average, he could be able to cross the famous milestone at New Orleans on March 14.
27 points per game at over 37 is obviously a record. But to get an idea of the gap that separates Bron Bron from any player at his age, know that the previous record belonged precisely to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the 1985-86 season, with 23.4 points per match. What’s more, LeBron will in about ten days blow out his 38 candles, and an average beyond 20 points at this age has only been reached five times in history.
Kevin Durant on LeBron approaching the all-time scoring record for the NBA. ???? https://t.co/cbozihdA7x pic.twitter.com/CCfriN1RJR
— theScore (@theScore) November 25, 2022
“There are 8 billion of us on Earth. […] So to be number 1 at something… To be the number 1 scorer among all basketball players, I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of emotions for him.”
– Kevin Durant