With the physical glitches of LeBron James and the catastrophic start of the Lakers, we have somewhat forgotten one of the narrative arcs that seemed to be animating the season. LeBron had all the cards in hand at the start of the school year to launch an assault on the career points record of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The galleys of the Purple and Gold and the absence of the King for two weeks have relegated this quest to the background.
Still, she’s obviously important to LeBron and his legacy. Is this very individual objective still achievable this year? At first, yes. We do not know exactly when the “Chosen One” will return to the field, he who suffers from the leg since the derby lost against the Clippers. But if he does it from the next game and no longer misses any of the 66 regular season games, the shot is very much playable.
Currently, LeBron James has 37,311 regular season points in the NBA. He lacks 1077 to overtake the legendary “KAJ”, with whom he has also had a stormy relationship for a few years. If he puts on a jersey on the night of Saturday to Sunday against San Antonio, LeBron will have to shoot at 16.3 points per game until the end of the regular season to clinch the record by May.
His ambition is obviously to achieve this before, which will be the case if he stays on the 24.9 average points he has posted since the start of the season. It will then take 43 games maximum for LeBron James to become the all-time leading scorer in the NBA.
The margin remains comfortable to achieve this in 2023, but he will still have to come back fairly quickly and, above all, avoid new injuries, he who has been a cyborg in this area for so long. Even if the new functioning of the Lakers pushes Anthony Davis to always score as much and LeBron to slow down the pace a little, there is a good chance that #23 will enter a little more in NBA history in a few months.
LeBron James still wants Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the proof
