LeBron James added yet another record to his glittering resume on Tuesday. But make no mistake about it. Overtaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer wasn’t ‘yet another’ entry in the NBA’s record books. By the time Abdul-Jabbar hung up his basketball sneakers in 1989, his 38,387 points were largely considered unassailable. They were, in many ways, the holy grail of basketball. Abdul-Jabbar’s record was for everyone to know, not to be matched, much less broken.
Yet, James is here in this moment. The 38-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down. By his own admission, James knows that he “can play a couple more years.” The significance of that statement is enormous. Not only can James shatter the 40k points barrier, he could well get close to 45,000 career points, an unthinkable proposition for anyone other than LeBron James in NBA history. Think about it: going nearly 7,000 points ahead would be a whopping 20 percent improvement on Abdul-Jabbar’s mark. Statistical milestones are generally ‘bettered’. James would have taken a blowtorch and obliterated Abdul-Jabbar’s name from the record books.
The latest stat accomplishment also brings the focus back on James’ place among the pantheon of NBA greats. Shouldn’t he now, undoubtedly, be the greatest of all-time? Should he now rank first among a handful of names that include Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain?
Truth be told, there is no definitive answer to this debate. This is the case across sport. For people of a certain era, Björn Borg ranks as the greatest tennis player ever. The Swede hit 11 Grand Slam singles titles and then abruptly retired from the sport while in his mid-to-late 20s. He won the French Open and Wimbledon – chalk and cheese as far as playing surfaces go – in the same year for three successive years. It is an accomplishment that is yet to be equalled by any tennis player since. Never mind that Borg walked away from tennis when he could have been entering the best years of his playing career.
Then we have Novak Djokovic, tied at 22 Grand Slam titles with Rafa Nadal, but the odds-on favourite to become the leading all-time men’s Grand Slam singles’ titles winner compared to the Spaniard. And yet, between Borg and Djokovic, Roger Federer must be mentioned, because who else brought so much beauty, poetry and music to tennis. Picking any of these names would be fine. There is context to each of their claims to being the GOAT.
The same is the case with James and those other names featuring on the NBA’s Mount Rushmore. Four NBA titles with three different franchises, an equal number of regular season and Finals Most Valuable Player (NBA MVP) awards (four) and a laundry list of other milestones, including 19 All-Star appearances and most points (regular season and playoffs), solidify James’ case as being the greatest ever to lace up a pair of sneakers on the basketball hardwood. But the others – be it Abdul-Jabbar or MJ or Russell – have their own unique place in NBA history. Each of those men can lay valid claim to being the first among equals. Again, there are no wrong answers here.
What James’ latest achievement does, though, is that it makes one thing clear beyond doubt. Nobody has been this good for this long. Abdul-Jabbar played for 20 long seasons, but was a shadow of his peak years in his final two NBA seasons. Jordan came out of his second retirement at age 38 and averaged 21.2 points-per-game (ppg) in his two seasons with Washington, a far cry from the 30-plus scoring average he amassed over his 13-year career with the Chicago Bulls.
James, in contrast, is ageing like the vino he so enjoys drinking. Now in his 20th NBA season, James is averaging 30.2 ppg, his third-highest scoring average for a season while still shooting more than 50 percent from the field. He is one of seven players to average more than 30 ppg but ranks third in shooting efficiency. The next youngest baller on this list of seven distinguished players is Damian Lillard, who is six years younger than James. The other five are below 30, with four of them being at least a decade younger than James. Perhaps the memo that read ‘The NBA now belongs to Gen Z’ never reached James.
At his own Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement in 2009, Michael Jordan concluded his speech, saying, “One day you might look up and see me playing the game at 50… Never say never. Because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” His Airness made this speech at the age of 46, six years after he had hung up his Air Jordans.
Jordan may not have come good on his threat, but it is James who is most likely to make true his words. Terming James ‘unbelievable’ after he has logged in 53,742 minutes or close to 900 hours of playing time over 1,410 games in the regular season would be the understatement of this century. Add to this the 266 playoff games and the 11,035 minutes James has put in there, and it would put his total career playing time at a grand total of 1,080 hours. During this entire phase – regular season and playoffs – James has remained pretty elite.
No, we need another word for James. Unbelievable is grossly inadequate. Perhaps ‘super-cali-fragilistic-expi-ali-docious’ is more appropriate.
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