LeBron James is now the NBA’s all-time scoring king, as he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Tuesday night to move into first place in career points.
It is an amazing accomplishment, especially when one looks at it from all angles.
Although James has a career scoring average of 27.2 points per game and is putting up 30.2 points a contest this season, some do not consider him to be a pure scorer.
In terms of scoring, several of the other all-time greats on James’ level were more skilled than him. Michael Jordan was a powerful finisher and had his trademark fadeaway jumper, Kobe Bryant could do it all, Larry Bird was a lethal shooter who also had a killer fadeaway shot and Abdul-Jabbar had the skyhook, the greatest single shot or move in league history.
But James had surpassed them all in career points, and he has done so because he has also surpassed everyone in the longevity department.
He is still playing at an incredible level in his 20th season and at age 38, despite an insane amount of wear and tear that has resulted from 10 trips to the NBA Finals. Abdul-Jabbar won a championship series MVP at the same age, but his overall level of play wasn’t quite where James’ production is now.