LeBron James’s 38,390 statistic tells many stories. In becoming NBA’s all-time leading scorer, King James allowed the cursor to dwell upon the learnings he imbibed from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the patron-saint and humanitarian, whose 38,387 mark he crossed after 39 long years. Living legend Michael Jordan, too, hailed James’s strength, longevity and skill over a two-decade long career. The constantly ticking scoreboard which will now aim for a never-before achieved 40K, also tells tales of James leveraging his fame to help put under-privileged children through college. And then there is his basketball.
James won NBA titles with three teams — Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers and LA Lakers — and is the only player in NBA history to record at least 30K points plus 10K rebounds and 10K assists. On his way to the record high, he has shaped several story arcs for the teams he played for — winning with a galaxy of stars as well as losing the finals and then winning next year while turning up for a modest home side Cleveland. In doing that, he took along players not quite in his stratospheric realm. Even away from the court, the Ohio boy, raised by a single mother, continued to inspire youngsters. His cult following helped him to be heard on issues of race — voting rights for disenfranchised blacks was his most famous campaign.
James reckons that the GOAT debate is nothing but good-old barber-shop talk, but to know him better it’s pertinent to compare his skill-sets with other greats. While growing up, James wanted Jordan’s fadeaway shot. Fate has been kind to him, when he broke Abdul-Jabbar’s record it was with this same stepback jumper shot at the end of the third quarter. He has lived his boyhood dream of matching Allen Iverson’s crossovers, Magic Johnson’s no-look pass and Kobe Bryant’s dunk on his way to the record. And in doing so, he has elevated basketball literally to the greatest show in sport.
