Lakers: LeBron James Breaks an NBA Record That May Never Be Passed Again
In a very LeBron James fashion, there were no celebrations when he passed a major milestone on Saturday night. There was no confetti, no game stoppage, no high-fives from teammates. All that mattered was the game that the Lakers were playing in.
But James became the NBA's all-time leading scorer between regular season and playoffs last night. He passed up Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the third quarter when he drained a 3-point attempt against the Warriors.
LeBron did it in just 1,616 games between the regular season and playoffs, nearly 200 less than the number of games Abdul-Jabbar did it in. After the game, Bron talked about passing him and what it meant.
"It's hard for me to speak on it now because I hate doing anything when it comes in a loss. And we had an opportunity to win a big game tonight. Been appreciative of the opportunity to play this game at the highest level," James said. "I love the game of basketball. I love being a part of the NBA and being able to inspire so many different sets of generations. I guess, it's a pretty big deal."
James needed 19 points to pass Kareem for all-time points entering Saturday's contest. He left having put up 26, giving him a career 44,149 points between the regular season and the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Lakers, those 26 points were not enough to take down the Golden State Warriors.
Right now, James is still about 1800 points behind Kareem on the NBA's all-time regular-season scoring list. That is a record that the Lakers great will likely break next year.
What a career.