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.

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.”

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.