King James may not be the best basketball player ever at that age, considering Michael Jordan and Karl Malone. He won't retire until he gets it

• LeBron James. Don't bet against it

  Photo:

  AFP

LeBron James, one of the decade's athletes, celebrated 35 yesterday, and two questions popped up - one, is he the 35-year-old ever? And second, can he break Karim Abdul Jabbar's 30-year-old record and retire in first place on the league's all-time scoring list?

As for the first question - the age question - Well, there aren't many candidates for this title. The first is Karl Malone, who finished the 97/8 season with 27-10-4, on the way to a loss to Utah in the final against Michael Jordan (we will meet him soon) and second in the MVP election (you already know who) - a month after the final He celebrated 35. The following season in the shortened 98/9, he gave similar numbers and became the oldest MVP ever.

The other is Jordan, who, at 97/8, reached the age of 35, leading the Bulls 29-6-3 to a season-ending sixth and final MVP, with the sixth and closing of the finals series scoring 45 points, including A kidnapping from Malone and a historic victory basket.

The last candidate is Carim, who in June 1985, at 38, provided 26-9-5 in six Finals against Boston en route to another Lakers championship as he became the MVP of the ever-adult series.

Will James be able to restore one of those achievements in his remaining seasons? Good chance. Is he better today than any of those around this age? Not at all sure, but it has a strong case.

Karim. Every basketball fan knows the number 38,387 // Photo: AP

However, LeBron has an even better chance of retiring as the biggest scorer in league history and bypassing Karim Abdul Jabbar. The other day he admitted full-mouthed that he was totally thinking of this one, the only, great, and special record that has not yet been moved to his page in history books - but is definitely in the direction.

Basketball player following his fate

On April 23, 1989, in his final regular season game, a week after he was 42 and in his 20th season in the league, Jabar reached 38,387 points - a number that every basketball fan has encountered countless times and that James goes to bed with him at night.

LeBron closes 2019 with 33,347 points, which is 5,040 less than the high. So what does he have to do to get past Karim? Let's see. This season, after 32 games, he stands at 25.5 points in the evening. Assuming a reasonable 25 to 40 more games this season, he'll earn another 1,000 points. If he continues to score 25, he will need another 162 games - two full seasons in total. Taking a drop to around 23 points a game and participating in 70 games a season for health and relaxation, we're talking about two and a half seasons.

If we put 23 points and 65 games into a season starting now, and apply that to the rest of the current season, that's 220 games, three and a half seasons from now. Anyway, whatever it is, we seem to be looking at the end of the 2022/23 season at the latest, where James will be a total of 38.

So even if between him and the MVP or MVP titles of other finals series are quite a few younger players and the votes of journalists - and therefore chances are lower - there is only one person between him and this record. LeBron James. And if there's something 35-year-old LeBron taught us - as long as things depend on it, you can safely bet he'll get them.