On a Tuesday night that concluded a 129-123 Los Angeles Lakers overtime win over the New York Knicks, LeBron James continued his climb atop the apex of the NBA’s scoring mountain, just 89 points away from toppling Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the historic leaderboard.
Tallying a triple-double with 28 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds, James (10,338) also powered his way to move past Mark Jackson (10,334) and Steve Nash (10,335) in the league’s all-time assists list, now sitting at the fourth place of the greatest score-setters.
James, a generational talent who possesses two of his remarkable traits in elite playmaking and sheer offensive prowess, just continues to fortify his greatness case for both scoring and assisting milestones of the NBA.
But indeed, the impending ultimate achievement is just a few days away and has been drawing much anticipation from the entire sports landscape. For James, any pressure is nonexistent, as he factually makes significant progress to finally occupy the scoring throne by any means necessary.
“I mean, itâs just a matter of time when Iâm going to do it,â James said if he develops heavy pressure about breaking the scoring record soon. âItâs not heavy. Iâm not going anywhere. Iâm going to be in this league for at least a few more years. Iâm going to do it. Itâs not heavy at all.â
James has been in the league since 2003. Throughout his career, there is no single season wherein he tallied a scoring average that is even much fewer than 20 points. His consistency and renowned longevity to keep his prime glowing indeed have paid off as he is now few steps away from becoming the league’s undisputed scoring king.
Speaking about longevity, the Lakers superstar was then asked if he’s planning to stick around longer and shatter John Stockton’s assist record up next.
Stockton, the ex-Utah Jazz franchise cornerstone who stands as the game’s purest floor general, leads the league in all-time assists with a mind-boggling 15,806 in total. With his gap over No. 2 Jason Kidd (12,091) being so overwhelmingly wide, James didn’t even take a second to say that he’s not vying to reach his unbreakable assist level.
“Well, no, I ain’t thinking about that at all,” James stated with a smile if he is also planning to remain in the league for a while to surpass Stockton in all-time assists mark. “That man played like 19 seasons and like 17 of them he played 82 games and doing some crazy stuff like that.
“No, I’m good on that. But I’m happy to be linked with some of the greats. That’s for sure.”
