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LeBron James surpasses Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Greatest of All Time?

Entering Tuesday’s matchup between the Lakers and the Thunder, a pressing question was whether LeBron James could accumulate the 36 points needed to overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. He didn’t even need a full game, as is typical of LeBron.

With just 10.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter of the game at Crypto.com Arena, James sunk a 21-foot turnaround, giving him a total of 16 points in that period, and ultimately allowing him to secure 36 points in the game, as well as 38,388 points over his illustrious career – the highest number of points ever scored by any player in NBA history.

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The Shot That Made History

LeBron James is unrivaled at the pinnacle. On Tuesday in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time regular season scoring record holder. Despite their rocky relationship in recent years, Abdul-Jabbar was in attendance at Crypto.com Arena to witness the feat. The record for career points was held by Abdul-Jabbar from April 1984, eight months before James was born, until Tuesday night, when he had scored a total of 38,387.

Magic Johnson said during a congratulatory clip, expressing the sentiment of most NBA observers, “I never thought anybody could beat Kareem’s record.” Until recently, James had never seriously contemplated besting Abdul-Jabbar’s record, as it felt too unreachable.

James, who played multiple stints in Cleveland and also had a stretch in Miami, has been consistently excellent and has achieved historic longevity, just like his fellow Lakers star. Since James’ rookie campaign in 2003-04, he has consistently chipped away at the standard set by Abdul-Jabbar in 1984 and continued to build on it until his retirement in 1989, with double-figure points in all but eight of his career games and scoring averages of at least 25 points per game in all 19 seasons.

Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, said via a statement, “Congratulations to LeBron for breaking one of the most cherished records in all of sports, becoming the NBA’s all-time scoring leader.”

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His sustained excellence over 20 seasons in the league has culminated in a towering achievement. Incredibly, LeBron is still playing at a high caliber, and his basketball legacy is still in the making.

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