LeBron James is on the cusp of one of the most storied records in all of sports. It has taken a full 20-year career and, 1410 games played, but he will be passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this week for the most points scored by an NBA player, ever.
James currently sits 35 points behind Abdul-Jabbar, with the Lakers having two home games coming up on the schedule. First, they’ll take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, and you can bet that James will be gunning for the record on Tuesday night. He hasn’t scored more than 28 points in any of his last three games, but look for his field goal attempts to be closer to 30 that night.
If it doesn’t come then, then James will likely break the record during the first half of the Lakers’ game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday. Both games will be shown on TNT. If for whatever reason he does not score a combined 36 over the next two, then all eyes will be on Los Angeles’ matchup with Golden State on Saturday as James goes up against a long-time rival, perhaps in search of history.
Is Anyone Close To LeBron James In Scoring?
But when he does break the record, will it ever be touched? There are some active players that are within shouting distance, like Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. But even the 34-year-old Durant is nearly 12,000 points behind LeBron, and his total scoring output has taken a hit with all the time he has missed in recent years. KD has had less than 1800 points in five of the last six seasons.
One of the obvious candidates to potentially catch James for the elusive record would be Luka Doncic. He is one of the top scorers in the NBA today, and is dominating the league by averaging over 33 points this season. He is doing so at an alarmingly young age, as he doesn’t turn 24 years old for another couple of weeks.
Doncic’s ability to dominate while still having his youth, and the potential for longevity in the NBA, make him one of the options to perhaps one day knock LeBron James off of the top of the scoring mountain. But it would take a consistent and healthy career for him to pull it off. When looking at the current numbers, it almost seems impossible. James could finish the year with nearly 39,000 career points, while Doncic will have somewhere between eight and nine thousand.
Young Guys Unlikely To Dominate For Two Decades
There are other high-volume scorers who may dream of one day making it to the pinnacle. Trae Young can score in bunches, Damian Lillard is still a serious threat, and even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in the top-5 in the NBA in scoring. But do any of them have the potential for the longevity that it takes to break a record of this magnitude? Can they not only remain in the league for 18–22 years, but can they also continue to be one of the top scorers in the game throughout that career?
Doubtful. As the NBA evolves into players playing fewer games and the league potentially shortening the season in the near future, the all-time scoring record is all but safe. LeBron James has put together a masterfully impressive career, both in production and his ability to remain on the court, and we may never see another player that is able to do it like he does.
Which is exactly why it is very unlikely that anyone will break the NBA’s All-Time Points record once James does.
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