The stage is set for LeBron James to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Whenever James scores the 38,388th point of his career, the Los Angeles Lakers will be ready to honor the King accordingly.
With James projected to break the record on Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers’ next home game moved to national television on a 7 p.m. PT slot on TNT. The Lakers will also have a special guest in the stands during the next few home games, as Abdul-Jabbar himself will be in attendance to see James break his record.
In an interview with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss set the tone that while L.A. will celebrate James’ prestigious accomplishment, everything should be about the four-time NBA champion because the record is not a Lakers record:
“I think this is a record that really stands out among all the different records in the NBA. I mean, this is the all-time scoring record,” Buss told ESPN this week as James edged closer to Abdul-Jabbar. “But this is really about a career that LeBron has built through his hard work and determination and talent. And while we will take a moment to celebrate, this is really about LeBron and reflecting on all the sacrifices he’s made to get to this point and to achieve this level of greatness.
“It’s really about him. This is his record.”
Not only will James breaking the scoring record be big for the NBA, but it will be grand for professional sports as a whole with the 38-year-old all-star doing what individuals thought could never be done. The King knows his future accomplishment is bigger than basketball, as he compared the record to Hank Aaron’s home-run record.
Buss, who is familiar with witnessing superstars having their own shining moment during a game, reiterates that James becoming the NBA’s all-time leading scorer is not about the Lakers and they will celebrate however he wants them to:
“This is really, it’s in the hands of the NBA,” Buss told ESPN. “This is an NBA record that’s being broken, not a Laker record. We’ll celebrate LeBron however he would like to be celebrated.”
The week ahead for the Lakers will require their faithful fans to grab popcorn and watch as the trade deadline and James’ historic achievement unfold. However, no matter what happens with the Lakers, next week will all be about LeBron James.
James Tweets Eyeball Emoji After Irving Requests Trade
With Brooklyn Nets All-Star guard Kyrie Irving requesting a trade, NBA Twitter went crazy in what seems like another episode of the Irving-To-L.A saga.
James, who won the 2016 NBA Championship with Irving on the Cleveland Cavaliers, took to Twitter to playfully stir the pot by tweeting the eyeball emoji after Irving requested a trade from the Nets.
James, who advocated for Irving to become a Laker in the summer, looks to be excited to potentially see his former teammate reunite with him and play alongside Anthony Davis to compete for a championship in the second half of the season.
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