LeBron James against time

LeBron James' NBA career is now a battle against time and legend.

At 37 years old, with 19 seasons in the American league, four championship rings (2012, 2013, 2016 and 2020), three Olympic medals and an inexhaustible collection of records, two names mark the determination of the Lakers star : that of his son Bronny, 17, with whom he dreams of sharing a team in the near future;

and the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 74, whom he intends to unseat from the undisputed top scorer of all time.

This second milestone was achieved by LeBron this Sunday in the game against Stephen Curry's Warriors, but with an asterisk for the NBA encyclopedia.

scored 26 points in the 38 minutes he played in the Lakers' defeat against Golden State (115-117) and reached a total of 44,157 points on his service record, which makes him

the top scorer in NBA history surpassing Abdul-Jabbar's 44,149.

However, the official record of the competition only takes into account the sum of the regular season games, without counting the points scored in the

.

In that other accounting, Abdul-Jabbar is still number one (38,387 points), ahead of Karl Malone (36,928) and LeBron himself (36,526 after the last game).

That double counting, together with the steep season that the Lakers are going through — ninth in the Western Conference, with a balance of 26 wins and 31 losses — made the hype around LeBron's historic feat subside, even by the protagonist .

“It is difficult for me to talk about these things when they are accompanied by a defeat.

But I suppose it is something quite important, ”said James himself soberly, after the third consecutive loss of his team, the seventh in the last 10 games.

Greatness.

Give it up for the new All-Time Leading Regular Season and Playoffs Scorer, LeBron James 👏 pic.twitter.com/zPlGGRhGXs

– Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 13, 2022

It was the rivals who took advantage of the event to value LeBron's perseverance and competitive voracity.

"There seems to be no end," Stephen Curry said.

“His longevity of his is legendary.

It is wild to think about the number of games he has played and the time he has been at the highest level, ”analyzed the Warriors record holder, who two months ago surpassed Ray Allen as the NBA's top three-pointer.

LeBron has reached the record of 44,157 points playing 182 fewer games than Abdul-Jabbar played —who played for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers between 1969 and 1989—.

LeBron's average this season is 29 points per game, the highest in his last 12 years, since the 29.7 he averaged with Cleveland in the 2009-2010 campaign.

It is the best mark ever for a player of his age.

LeBron went over 2.

000 points in 10 of the 18 seasons he has completed to date (with an average of 31.4 in 2005-2006 as his scoring ceiling).

Some statistics whose projection would allow him to reach the official record of Abdul-Jabbar next year.

“The way he has taken care of his body to play at the highest level for so many years has been little appreciated.

It is unprecedented.

We may be facing the best player of all time.

He is still there, at the top ”, Steve Kerr, coach of the Warriors, praised him a few weeks ago.

"He has rewritten the rules of how players can evolve their physique and their game to continue at the highest competitive level," Lakers coach Frank Vogel said.

“We don't know how many years he has left in action, but the fans should appreciate him while they can.

He is an incredible player ”, added Klay Thompson, who

the party for Lebron with 33 points (his first game over 30 since the serious knee injury he suffered in the sixth game of the 2019 finals).

With 9 of 27 shooting from the field against the Warriors (1 of 10 in the fourth quarter), LeBron sang the

after the loss, but also allowed himself a sigh of romance to weave the statistics with the essence.

"I love basketball.

I love being a part of the NBA and being able to inspire so many different generations,” he confessed.

MORE INFORMATION

LeBron James, fatherhood as a biographical revenge

A nod to the past, present and future with his son Bronny junior as a reference.

and the NBA are already discounting schedules to embrace a teenager turned celebrity from his first steps on his high school team, the Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, a Los Angeles neighborhood.

The boy plays as a base or escort, he is already 1.88 meters tall, he wears the number 0 on his shirt and always wears

clothes , the same brand with which Lebron signed a lifetime contract for 1,000 million dollars in 2016.

In December, in an exhibition game at Staples Center between college kids, the creature scored 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field.

Father and son have marked the roadmap.

Waiting for Bronny will allow LeBron to pass Abdul-Jabbar without question.

"It would be an incredible moment, for the whole family," LeBron explained when his first-born began to emerge and they asked him about the possibility of sharing a jersey and track with him one day.

"If only.

Obviously, the priority is to take care of my body and I will continue to do so.

But even more important is to take care of the head.

If the head is not right, the body is going to come down along the way”, said

, who in 2018 signed for the Lakers, in addition to the challenge of revitalizing a historic franchise, to give it a more competitive environment. and projection to the eldest of his three children.

In his obsession with longevity, LeBron's greatest personal luxury, as his partner and manager, Maverick Carter, detailed in his day, consists of spending 1.5 million annually on his physical preparation.

A planning that included the construction in his house of a replica of the gym that any NBA team can have, where two personal trainers come to work with him daily.

Everything to travel in time towards the absolute legend.

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