LeBron Eyes NBA's All-Time Scoring Record; Jason Kidd Thinks Assists Next?

LeBron James is poised to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA's all-time scoring list, as he needs 36 points in the Los Angeles Lakers' matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd thinks James could make a run at the all-time assists record as well.

Dalton Trigg | Feb 7, 2023

In this story:

History could be made on Tuesday night with the Los Angeles Lakers taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder, as LeBron James is just 36 points away from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the top spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list.

For a guy who has accomplished pretty much everything an NBA player could hope to accomplish throughout a 20-year career, as he's a four-time champion, a four-time Finals MVP and a four-time league MVP, becoming the league's all-time leading scorer will just be the icing on top of the "king cake."

However, could James, who has always considered himself as being a pass-first player, potentially find his way at the top of the all-time assists list as well before he retires? Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd thinks so.

“If we’re not careful, he’s going to make a run at John Stockton’s assists record," said Kidd. "He’s going to run right past me.”

As of right now, James is in fourth-place on the all-time assists list with 10,351. He is 920 assists behind Chris Paul, who is still playing, 1,740 behind Kidd and 5,455 behind the the all-time leader, John Stockton.

Over these last three years, James has been on a 350-assist per season pace. So, if he ends up playing five more years, as he's been on record saying he might do, that pace would put him comfortably past Paul and barely past Kidd for second place.

However, even if James maintained his career average of 7.3 assists while playing in all 82 games each year, it would take him another 10 seasons to pass Stockton. Needless to say, Kidd might have been joking when he bought up Stockton.

Regardless of how high James ends up on that particular list, though, it's still pretty impressive that he's going to be the league's all-time leading scorer as well as at least being in third-place on the all-time assists list. Love him or hate him, James is a once-in-a-lifetime talent that we should soak in while we still can.

Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Mavericks? Click Here.

Follow DallasBasketball.com on Twitter and Facebook.

Published Feb 7, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.