LeBron James will become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Tuesday night or Thursday, and tickets to the event are selling out at top prices, some as high as $154,000 CAD.
At the time of this writing, the most expensive tickets for Tuesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles are listed at CA$100,700 on the official Lakers distributor website of Los Angeles, Ticketmaster. These are certified resale tickets. Then there were tickets for CA$60,420.
As ‘King James’ needs 36 points to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and is averaging just over 27 points per game, he is instead expected to smash the record on Thursday night against the Bucks. of Milwaukee in another game at Crypto.com Arena.
In this case, the Seatgeek.com site instead offered a pair of tickets at US$115,000, or CA$154,506 each. Yes, over CA$300,000 for a pair of tickets.
Ticketmaster also offered us tickets for up to US$100,000 (CA$134,267) each. There is also a proposal for US$90,000 (CA$120,840). And it’s not even about sideline tickets.
resale websites
Offers on resale sites are not as astronomical, but remain unaffordable. On Seatgeek.com, the most expensive ticket for Tuesday’s game is CA$86,255 while on Stubhub it’s on offer for CA$21,351. At this price, you get a pitchside seat with unlimited food and drink (wine and beer!). At least that’s it.
On the Stubhub side, the highest sum was CA$46,320 and the tickets were not directly on the sidelines.
There are also tickets between CA$30,501 and CA$38,103 for this game and plenty of offers in the twenties of thousands of dollars.
Mythical record
LeBron James is therefore preparing to break a mythical record since with 38,352 career points, he is not very far from overtaking another member of the Lakers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who amassed 38,387 career points.
The two men are the only ones to have crossed the 38,000 career mark.
Abdul-Jabbar, however, set that mark in 1,560 games while James currently has 1,409, the equivalent of two seasons less.
Behind them are two other players who have worn the colors of the Lakers, Karl Malone (36,928 pts) and Kobe Bryant (33,643 pts). The first played a single season for the team in the purple and yellow jersey, his last. He had played the first 18 seasons of his career with the Utah Jazz.
The one who is considered the greatest player in history, Michael Jordan, ranks fifth with 32,292 points, but he has only played 1072 games.
It must be remembered, however, that Jordan retired in 1993 and missed almost two seasons trying his luck in minor baseball before returning to play with the Chicago Bulls in March 1995. He retired a second time at the end of the 1997-1998 season to return to play two seasons with the Washington Wizards from 2001 to 2003.
Not the greatest
Despite the record he is set to break and the four NBA championships he has won, James would arguably not be considered the greatest player in NBA history.
In the minds of fans and observers, this title still goes to Michael “Air” Jordan, a player who continues to mark his sport with his legend twenty years after his retirement.
Moreover, we can rely on a statistic that says a little more about the performance of the players, that of points per game.
In this regard, Jordan is king with an average of 30.12 points per game. He is followed by Wilt Chamberlain (30.07) and Shaquille O’Neal (27.84). LeBron James is fourth (27.22).
Among the greatest
Photo d’archives
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Career points
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1560 pj | 38 387 pts - LeBron James
1409 pj | 38 352 pts - Karl Malone
1476 pj | 36 928 pts - Kobe Bryant
1346 pj | 33 643 pts - Michael Jordan
1072 pj | 32 292 pts - Dirk Nowitzki
1522 pj 31 560 pts - Wilt Chamberlain
1045 pj | 31 419 pts - Shaquille O’Neal
1027 pj | 28 596 pts - Carmelo Anthony
1260 pj | 28 289 pts - Moses Malone
1329 pj | 27 409 pts
Average points per game
- Michael Jordan 30,12
- Wilt Chamberlain 30,07
- Shaquille O’Neal 27,84
- LeBron James 27,22
- Karl Malone 25,02
- Kobe Bryant 24,99
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 24,61
- Carmelo Anthony 22,45
- Dirk Nowitzki 20,74
- Moses Malone 20,62
Seasons played
- Dirk Nowitzki 21
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 20
- LeBron James 20
- Kobe Bryant 20
- Karl Malone 19
- Shaquille O’Neal 19
- Carmelo Anthony 19
- Moses Malone 19
- Michael Jordan 15
- Wilt Chamberlain 14
