LeBron James on 9,000 career assists: “When I was a little kid I was somewhat better than some of my teammates”

LeBron James scored 13 points (on 3/10 shooting), grabbed six rebounds, handed out a game-high 13 assists and tallied two steals in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 108-95 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night at Staples Center. The Lakers improved to 26-7 and still have the second-best record in the NBA, whereas the Mavericks dropped to 21-11. During the Lakers-Mavs game, James, who turns 35, recorded his 9,000th career assist and became the first player in the NBA to register 9,000 assists, 9,000 rebounds and 30,000 points:

“The milestone of it is when you grow up in the inner city around a lot of things that you don’t want your kids to see, to be able to get to this point in age where the statistics is stacked up against you for obvious reasons, that’s a blessing. It’s more of a blessing for me to be able to do what I love to do every day and be able to let me family reap the benefits of that, and they allow me to be an inspiration to them. That is really cool,” James said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.