The King Stands Alone

By: Andy Jachim

In his 1,410th NBA game, LeBron James has accomplished a feat that could very well never be broken ever again. As of Tuesday, the “Chosen One” is the leading scorer in the history of the National Basketball Association, as he stands all alone with 38,390 career points and counting. Some people understand the magnitude of what LeBron did earlier this week, and that’s absolutely mind-boggling to me. Love or hate LeBron, scoring this amount of points in a career is absolutely unreal and everyone should respect what he has been able to do.

I, for one, am not a big LeBron James guy and I have no shame in admitting that. I was a huge fan of his during his first stint in Cleveland, as that’s when I first started watching the NBA. I even enjoyed him while he was a member of that Miami Heat dream team. While I caught a lot of hate for being a LeBron enthusiast as a kid, I didn’t care. He was superman in the world of basketball at his peak and there was no better player to watch growing up.

His career accolades are as long of a list as you could imagine, starting with his four MVPs and finals MVPs. He’s a 19-time (Yes 19) all-star, making every possible game with the exception of his rookie season. He’s made the All-NBA team 18 times and of course, is a four-time NBA champion.

All of those incredible accomplishments don’t compare to the crown LBJ now holds as the top scorer in the history of this league. Some people will say that he is only in this position because he’s in his 20th NBA season and has been in the league since he was an 18-year-old kid. To those individuals, I say take a hike. This is one of the few times I will back LeBron, and I have my reasons. It takes a special talent to score in this dominant fashion on a consistent basis for a long period of time. LeBron has never really taken his foot off the pedal, as many have said his game has aged “like fine wine”. Take a look at his age-37 campaign last season, he averaged over 30 points per game. Even in 2023, he is projected to hit that 30-point-per-game average once again, continuing to make his scoring stretch that much more impressive.

Only seven players have eclipsed the 30,000 career point mark. The list includes Wilt Chamberlain, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and obviously LeBron. To even be a part of that group would be an unbelievable feeling, so I can’t even imagine what it means for LeBron to lead it in anything.

Now that he’s at the top of the mountain, the only question for the King is what will the mark be set at when he walks away from the game for good? Based on how he’s playing still at such a high level, you’d have to imagine he still has a decent amount of juice left in the tank. You can only imagine his final wish would be to play with his son, LeBron James Jr. “Bronny” isn’t eligible for the NBA draft until 2024, so we’ll have to wait a couple of years to see how that will shake out.