LeBron James surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time NBA points record

History was rewritten with a basket of two.

A shot after a reverse in the game that this Tuesday faced the Lakers with the Oklahoma Thunder in Los Angeles.

It was the 12th minute of the third quarter when time stopped and the world of basketball rose to its feet.

LeBron James had broken a record from another planet, the most points in the regular season in the NBA.

With that pitch, El Rey left behind the mark of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), a track witness to the feat and owner of the record since April 1984, and raised the mark to a new dimension.

One myth preceded another.

The scoreboard of the old Staples Center, today Crypto.com Arena, was a countdown with the points that the star needed to cross the barrier.

Every James basket was cheered by the nearly 20,000 spectators.

In the stands, his family, friends and fans from Akron, where the legend was born.

Also a good handful of celebrities.

A front-row ticket cost up to $50,000, a luxury price for a Hollywood show.

This is how it was celebrated when LeBron conquered the record.

The game stopped, Kareem jumped the court and handed him a ball, Magic Johnson hugged him and the star burst into tears: "Not even in my dreams this would have been better."

38,388 POINTS

LeBron James hits the fadeaway jumper to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer!

#ScoringKing pic.twitter.com/P5LyTZAZn3

— NBA (@NBA) February 8, 2023

Lebron was already crowned in February 2022 as the most scoring basketball player in the existence of the NBA, adding the regular phase and the

.

James then beat Kareem's mark of 44,159 points, amassed by the charismatic center with glasses in 1,797 games (24.5 on average).

The symbol of the Lakers closed in 1989, at the age of 42, a career in which he played 1,560 games in the league season in 20 courses.

In the title playoffs he enlisted in 237 matches, with 5,762 points in those matches.

His successor at the top has participated in 1,410

games in the regular phase, plus another 266 in the

, with 7,631 points in those games that mark the final stretch for the title.

That is to say, LeBron has needed 150 games less than Kareem in the regular phase to beat his record.

And he has also been more prolific in the qualifiers.

Little or nothing can surprise in LeBron's brilliant career, in the deck of very few players to be considered the best of all time.

At 38, King James is celebrating his 20th season in the NBA (11 in Cleveland, four in Miami and five with the Lakers), and in 10 of them he has played in the finals for the title.

Four rings shine on his hand: 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2020. Six runners-up.

Four MVP awards from the regular season, and another four from the final phase.

13 times in the best five in the League.

19 elections for the All Star. Two Olympic golds... And dozens of statistical records, such as scoring at least once 40 points or more for each of the teams in the League.

His top, 61 with Miami to Charlotte in 2014.

Karl Malone (36,928 points in the regular season and 41,689 in total) continues to live on the third step of the podium of the top scorers, and the triumvirate is accompanied by a collection of stars from fourth to tenth place, grouping the two rankings: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki (the only European in the

), Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan and Kevin Durant.

Pau Gasol is the first Spaniard among the points devourers, 43rd in the general list with 22,992 (20,894 in the regular phase).

When will James stop?

The King is still hungry, but his enormous appetite is no longer satisfied by any number, not even a fifth ring would satisfy him.

In the father's mind there is only one much more sentimental desire, to play in the NBA with his son, LeBron

James.

The eldest of three brothers is 18 years old, plays for the high school team, Sierra Canyon School, and wears the number 0, the number he chose for another laker, Russell Westbrook.

Next year he will jump to the university league (he still has to choose a shirt) and could participate in the 2024

. That is, in time to coincide with dad in his last season of contract in Los Angeles (a father and son have never coincided on the court in an NBA game).

That LeBron course will be 40 years old.

Precisely in a recent game between the Lakers and the Rockets, a rival player approached James and said: "You played against my father in your first game in the NBA."

He was Jabari Smith junior and, indeed, Jabari Smith was on the Sacramento Kings roster that on October 29, 2003 attended the debut of El Elegido, as

baptized him when he was studying at the institute.

In those Cavaliers LeBron James debuted with a loss and 25 points on his record.

With his first basket, a midrange shot after three minutes, he began the countdown to immortality, a marathon in which he has faced a father and a son on eight other occasions.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 75 years old today.

He also broke a record, in his case in that 1984 when LeBron was born, to surpass Chamberlain.

That, remember, "annoyed" the man with the 100 points.

“Wilt had a one-sided rivalry with me since I started doing well in the NBA.

I don't feel that way about LeBron."

The King is today more king than ever.

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