LeBron James
made
NBA
history by becoming the all-time leading scorer in the most competitive basketball league in the world.
It wasn't all good news for the 38-year-old forward, however, as the
Los Angeles Lakers
lost to the
Oklahoma City Thunder
133-130.
The forward of the California franchise surpassed the 38,387 points of
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
, who was present at the Crypto.com stadium, the former Staples Center, packed with 19,000 people who sold out tickets and paid very high resale prices.
With 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter,
LeBron
made a basket and had the 36 points in the game he needed to break the all-time mark.
At that precise moment, the party went into the background.
Abdul-Jabbar, like everyone else in the crowd, stood up to applaud, the clock stopped and cameras filled the field.
A video in tribute to King James began to play on the stadium screens, and he was quickly greeted by his relatives.
In the middle of the court, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar handed him a basketball in recognition of his prowess and the two embraced before posing for photos.
"To have the opportunity to be in the presence of a legend like Kareem... please give him a standing ovation," he said, microphone in hand, before beginning to hand out thanks to his teammates, friends and family.
LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
"I always dreamed of this, but I never thought it would be so big and wonderful. I have no words," he closed.
In 1989, when
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
said goodbye to basketball, it seemed impossible that anyone could come close to the 38,387 regular-season points he'd accumulated over his entire career.
The basket with which LeBron James broke the all-time record for top scorer in the NBA.
Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images/AFP.
Several tried it, from
Karl Malone
(36,928 points) and
Kobe Bryant
(33,643) to
Michael Jordan
himself (32,292)
, but the top that the former Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers had left was a utopia.
But one day
King James came to take over the record
.
He did it after 1,410 games played in the regular season of the NBA,
150 less than the 1,560 it took Abdul-Jabbar
to reach that same figure.
An overwhelming difference.
The record for points in the regular phase will be added to many others that LeBron already had.
For example, he is the only player in NBA history to accumulate at least
30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists.
In addition, he is the only one to average
more than 25 points during 19 consecutive seasons
and has accumulated more than 15 uninterrupted years scoring at least 10 points in each of the games he played.
Ginobili, Magic Johnson, Curry and Durant: the figures who surrendered at the feet of LeBron James
After LeBron James became the leading regular-season scorer in NBA history, several basketball stars fell at his feet.
Among them,
Manu Ginóbili
, who dedicated a post to him on social networks: "LeBron James! Congratulations, best all-time scorer. Bestial!"
"I would never imagine that I would see two NBA players score over 38,000 points. I still remember when my teammate, the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, broke the record. It was an honor to be the guy who passed the ball to him to build his legacy. There will be no other LeBron,"
Magic Johnson
wrote
on his Twitter account.
For his part,
Kevin Durant
, star of the Brooklyn Nets, congratulated LeBron with a video on his social networks in which he highlighted the work done by 'King James' and the way in which he established himself as one of the best ever .
"Congratulations @KingJames...legendary things are happening #38388," was the tweet from
Stephen Curry
of the Golden State Warriors.