The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Image Courtesy of Fox 59

By Claudia Carrion

On February 7, 2023, Los Angeles Lakers superstar and basketball phenom LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) all-time leading scorer in the regular season.

James, a four-time champion and four-time finals MVP, achieved this milestone on a 21-foot step-back fadeaway with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Many fans had opinions about what type of shot James should use to break this record, and James had heard these discussions.

“A lot of people wanted me to go to the skyhook to break the record or one of the signature dunks,” James said. “But the fadeaway is a signature play as well.”

Prior to this historic fade-away, James was already the all-time leader in playoff points, according to basketball reference.

NBA fans and experts have been speculating since the beginning of last season as to when James would break this record. Coming into the game, James was just 36 points away, and many in the NBA world believed that this would be the game where James set the record.

Excited fans waited until there were 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter against the visiting Thunder, for James to score the record-breaking basket for his 38,388th regular season point and pass the legendary Abdul-Jabbar’s record.

Future Hall of Famer and former Lakers point guard, Russel Westbrook, who was recently traded to the Utah Jazz passed James the ball while he had Kenrich Williams of the Thunder out on an island at the top of the key. With a hand in his face, James was determined to break the record and score on Williams with a mismatch jumper to pass Abdul-Jabbar’s career total.

Once James set the record, the game stopped. Abdul-Jabbar aka the captain, met James at the center of the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and handed him the game ball resembling the passing of the torch” as the new record holder.

The captain held the all-time NBA scoring record of 38,387 since 1984, according to NBA.com. For thirty-nine years, many believed the record was untouchable, but James exceeded expectations again as he has done throughout his whole career.

James and Abdul-Jabbar are the only two players in the NBA to ever score more than 38,000 points, according to Yahoo Sports.

The passing of the torch was one of the few times the NBA world has seen much interaction between James and Abdul- Jabbar. In October, James was asked about his non-existent relationship with Abdul-Jabbar and said, “no thoughts and no relationship.”

This past week, just as James was nearing the record, Abdul-Jabbar finally responded to James’s comment on their lack of a relationship.

“LeBron said we don’t have a relationship. He’s right — and for that I blame myself,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “Not for anything I did, but perhaps for not making more of an effort to reach out to him. By nature, I have never been a chimney, reaching-out kind of guy as the media was always quick to point out – I’m quiet, shy, and am such a devoted homebody that you’d think I have agoraphobia.”

The home crowd celebrated this beautiful moment in sports history when the game paused with James at the center of the court surrounded by his family, the media, and fans cheering and chanting “MVP!”

Tickets for the game skyrocketed to $100,000 Tuesday night, according to CBS, with various celebrities being there including Rihanna, Jay Z, Floyd Mayweather, Bad Bunny, and many more.

With every passing game, James will continue to raise the all-time scoring record and at this rate, it doesn’t appear that he will have to pass the torch involuntarily anytime soon.

Until then, everyone will have to stand by and “witness greatness.” Just as all the lucky NBA fans have done in watching over this accomplished future first-ballot hall of famer’s 20-year legendary career.

The only let down of the night for Lakers nation was when James appeared to leave the game early late in the fourth quarter due to a foot injury, which helped the Thunder beat the Lakers 133-130.