About a year ago, LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading career scorer in a contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The fact James is a Laker and Abdul-Jabbar played most of his career with the Lakers reinforces the franchise’s image as the gold standard of basketball.
Abdul-Jabbar became the league’s all-time leading career scorer in 1984 when he surpassed Wilt Chamberlain, who himself played five seasons with the Purple and Gold.
After frustrating playoff losses in his first three years with the franchise, Chamberlain enjoyed a phenomenal 1971-72 campaign, during which L.A. won 33 games in a row and won its first world championship since arriving in Southern California.
That season was also notable for Chamberlain becoming the first NBA player to reach the 30,000-point mark. He did so in a game versus the Phoenix Suns, which the Lakers unfortunately lost by one point.
February 16, 1972: Wilt Chamberlain of the Lakers becomes the first player in NBA history to score 30,000 career points.
Chamberlain—pictured with coach Bill Sharman (left) and Suns GM Jerry Colangelo—had 19 PTS/21 REB but Los Angeles lost at Phoenix, 110-109.
📸 Tut Curtis pic.twitter.com/1P8tVhR99f
— NBA Cobwebs (@NBACobwebs) February 16, 2024
By this point of his career, Chamberlain wasn’t scoring much anymore. The man who once averaged 50.4 points a game for an entire season and scored 100 points in a single game was down to 14.8 points a game in the 1971-72 season. Some of it was due to head coach Bill Sharman, who asked him to sacrifice scoring to focus on defense, rebounding and firing outlet passes to ignite L.A.’s running game.
But Chamberlain still won the NBA Finals MVP that spring. He had 24 points and 29 rebounds in Game 5 of the championship series to help finish the New York Knicks.