It feels like every game that LeBron James is breaking some sort of record in his 21st season in the league. Last season seemed to be the pinnacle of that when he became the all-time leading scorer, passing Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
However, the celebrations and milestones have continued into this season as the 39-year-old had the 40,000-point mark in his sight. This is something that no player has done in the NBA as James continues to extend his scoring record on a nightly basis.
Coming into Saturday’s matchup against the defending champion Denver Nuggets, James was only nine points away from eclipsing the 40,000-point threshold. It felt like deja vu due to the energy in Crypto.com Arena and the buzz whenever the four-time champion had the ball. To capture the feeling, the NBA mic’d up James for this historical moment, capturing every interaction throughout the game:
"Embrace it, appreciate it, and don't take it for granted."
LeBron was mic'd up for his historic night reaching 40K points! 👑 x 🎙️
Lakers are back in action tonight against OKC at 10:30pm/et on NBA TV! pic.twitter.com/s2CgRjPktt
— NBA (@NBA) March 4, 2024
Saturday was once again another great accomplishment for the future Hall of Famer and adds to the stacked list of accolades that he has. Since James is in the final stages of his career, this accomplishment only strengthens his case of being the greatest player of all-time.
Unfortunately, the Lakers always seem to lose when achieving these goals, as the Nuggets ultimately beat L.A. 124-114. While it is certainly nice to add to the resume, James is all about winning and getting championships, the Lakers need to continue to build around the aging star to achieve those aspirations.
As up and down this season has been, L.A. needs to use this final stretch of the regular season to prepare themselves for a potential postseason run. But Saturday showed the gap between the Lakers and the defending champions.
LeBron James calls reaching 40,000 career points ‘bittersweet’ after loss to Nuggets
As great of a moment it was when James eclipsed the 40,000-point mark, to be able to pull out a win to cap it off would have been even better. However, the Nuggets continue their dominance against the purple and gold, winning eight straight.
While a loss should not take away from the moment, James admits that reaching 40,000 points is ‘bittersweet’ after similarly falling to Denver in the Western Conference Finals last year.
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