Early in the third quarter in the Lakers loss to the Warriors yesterday, LeBron James caught a pass from Anthony Davis on the left wing and pulled the trigger from long distance. With that shot, James became the NBA’s all time leading scorer combining both regular and postseason points. He passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who had the previous record with 44,149 points.
There’s no reason why this shouldn’t be considered the all time scoring record. It doesn’t make sense that we consider the regular season scoring total as the so-called “scoring record”, when the playoffs are by far the most important part of the game and the most showing of how great a player actually is. James will most likely pass Kareem on the regular season scoring list also, but this record is far more impressive. The combination of regular season success and playoff dominance over such a long period of time is incredible.
The interesting part about James is that his name is often omitted from the conversations about who’s the greatest scorer of all time. Guys like Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant get most of the attention when it comes to putting the ball in the hoop. The reason for this is obvious. James is a natural pass-first player. He’s a point guard. The crazy part is that even with the facilitating mentality he’s consistently been among the top scorers in the league for nearly two decades. He has put on a clinic in consistency, longevity and efficiency.
This season may be a disaster for the Lakers as a team, but James should continue to climb many different leaderboards as the season goes on.
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