Last night, during the Lakers 127-119 loss, LeBron James made history, passing Karl Malone for 2nd all time in career points. LeBron has been on a mission passing these legends, getting into the top 4 in 2019-2020 and getting up to #3. But a talk for the last couple of seasons has been, will LeBron James beat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s points record? Below says the answer!
LeBron is currently at 36,947 points, 1,440 short of Kareem’s 38,387 points. While LeBron is 37, he has shown no signs of slowing down. He is averaging more points, rebounds, steals and blocks and is shooting a higher percentage from the field and from 3 this season compared to last season. The near 30 point per game scorer this season has a great chance to break the record.
LeBron has 1,580 points so far this season in 53 games, 74.6 (round to 75)% of the games. With 11 games remaining, LeBron is on pace to play 8 more games this season. If his point average stays 29.8, LeBron would finish the season with 1,813 points, just 1,202 points away from Kareem’s, what was unbreakable record.
The chances of LeBron breaking the record if he gets to that point is almost guaranteed. As long as the King doesn’t have a serious injury, he should score enough points. In LeBron’s entire 19 year career, his 2nd lowest point total in a finished season was 1,126 last season, when he played only 45 games, which is only 62.5% of the games. So if LeBron plays about 64-67% of the games next season, he should break it then. If he doesn’t next season, it does not seem like he’ll retire after next season either.
If LeBron for some reason doesn’t play another game for the rest of the season, he still has a good chance to break the record in the 2022-2023 season. LeBron has an average of 1,945 points per season in his career. Assuming he can’t put around that amount next season is unrealistic. Also, he would even break the record if he had 504 less points than that.
LeBron has a great chance of breaking the record next season and I think he will, adding on to his already full resume!
Chase Coburn
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