In the lead up to Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, something that was brought up was the relationship between the two. More specifically the fact that there really wasn’t one.
James and Abdul-Jabbar never really established any sort of relationship and even though the Lakers legend had said he would be in the building to witness LeBron break his record, some wondered whether he was really happy at seeing it fall.
But Abdul-Jabbar continues to insist that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Kareem took part in a press conference prior to the Lakers’ contest against the Milwaukee Bucks and believes he made sure that LeBron knew he supported him every step of the way, via Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the L.A. Times:
“To me, I feel like I did it the right way,” Abdul-Jabbar said in a news conference before Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena. “And made sure that LeBron knew I supported what he was doing, and this is something very special and I’m happy to help him celebrate it.”
While he and LeBron still have yet really sit down to have a conversation and begin building a relationship, it is something Kareem is looking forward to doing with his fellow Lakers legend:
“I didn’t get a chance to get into a conversation where we got to know each other, it was just moments, really,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “So that is something that has to happen. But looking forward to it.”
Hopefully the two are able to connect and build that relationship as they will forever be in the same fraternity of Lakers legends.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar opens up about feelings surrounding LeBron James breaking scoring record
Prior to the press conference, Abdul-Jabbar put all his feelings out there for the world to see on his Substack, reiterating things he has said previously.
In addition to making his support for his fellow Lakers star clear, Kareem also opened up about the lack of relationship between himself and LeBron James, putting all of the blame on himself. Kareem noted that he didn’t make much of an effort to reach out and pointed towards their age difference as one reason the two never really connected.
But despite all of this, Abdul-Jabbar credited James for making him love the game again and praised everything he has accomplished both on and off the court.
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