LeBron James has reached countless milestones in his career, but he might have just achieved one of his biggest accolades last week — passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
James surpassed Abdul-Jabbar’s 44,149 points scored in the regular season and the playoffs combined during the loss to the Golden State Warriors, draining a three in the third quarter to bring the game back within one point.
After the game, the Lakers honored James’ record by posting a montage of iconic plays from his and Abdul-Jabbar’s careers. Fittingly, the tribute video starts with the two NBA greats vowing to embrace the pressure during their introductory press conferences:
Two legends, one record: Congrats to @KingJames on passing @kaj33 for most combined regular-season and playoff points in NBA history pic.twitter.com/YvoxJVECkk
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 17, 2022
James is yet to match Abdul-Jabbar’s regular-season career total in points. The legendary center scored 38,387 points over his 18-year NBA career during which he won six championships: one with the Milwaukee Bucks and five with the Purple and Gold.
James needs just under 2,000 points to pass Abdul-Jabbar on that list — and less than 400 to jump ahead of Karl Malone in second.
Frank Vogel congratulates James on becoming all-time leading scorer
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel congratulated James on his achievement after the Warriors game, calling the 37-year-old forward “the greatest player” to have ever graced the NBA.
“Obviously, he hits milestones every x-amount of games,” Vogel said.
“We continue to see it. To me, he’s the greatest player ever to play and Lakers fans are lucky to have him in a Laker uniform. I still believe he’s going to lead us to great things this year. It’s just awesome to see him hit another milestone like that.”
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