There are two names in basketball history that are often sounded out loud in any debate surrounding who the greatest basketball player of all time is. Michael Jordan, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Advertisement
These two giants of the game scored over 70,000 points between then and won 6 NBA titles each. 11 NBA MVP titles and 33 All-star nods also stand as proof of the silverware racked up by these two maestros.
Also read: “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has more seasons with a top 5 MVP vote-getter than Michael Jordan”: Nick Wright explains how the 7’2” Lakers icon is better than the 6’6” Bulls GOAT
Their careers overlapped only for a period of five years, and being in different conferences meant that duels between the two weren’t as common. But the two certainly defined their individual eras in the history of the league.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retired as the premier scorer in all of basketball. However, at a point in time, that record looked under threat from none other than Michael Jordan.
However, even as early as 1995, Jordan had played down any chance of him breaking Kareem’s record.
Why did Michael Jordan underplay his chances at Kareem’s record?
One big factor that led to Kareem’s numbers was his incredible longevity. The Captain was a mainstay in the league from 1969 to 1989 – an incredible 20-year tenure at the top of the game. And Jordan for one did not intend to stay in the league for that long. As documented in Michael Jordan:
The Life by Roland Lazenby, “In his years before baseball, Jordan had shot a stellar .516 from the floor, but the numbers dipped to just .441 during his seventeen-game run over the spring of 1995. Now, he was up to .493. His scoring, too, was headed back up to a 30-point average from the nine-year low of 26.9 in 1995. Lacy Banks put together a comparison showing that if Jordan played through the 1998 season, he would rest third on the all-time scoring list with almost 29,000 points, behind only Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time leader with 38,397. Banks asked him about going for the all-time record. “Forget Jabbar,” Jordan replied. “No way do I plan to play anywhere close to twenty years.”
This proved true, with Jordan even taking a couple of breaks from the game. Jordan played 15 seasons in the league and finished around 6000 points behind Kareem.
As of now, however, Kareem’s record does stand a threat. Not from Jordan, anymore though. The one ready to become the owner of that record is none other than LeBron James.
How close is LeBron James to breaking Kareem’s record?
At the beginning of the season, James was 1,300 odd points away from Kareem’s record. And as of today, that gap has reduced to a mere 864 points.
As a career 27ppg scorer, that would mean that injuries aside, LeBron is set to break the record within this season. According to ESPN’s calculations, James is expected to reach the pinnacle by March 2023.
A historic event is on the horizon for the NBA fandom. A record that many believed could never be broken, is a mere 864 points away from being broken. LeBron James is at the cusp of immortality, and we are all witnesses. One record that Jordan couldn’t beat, appears to be LeBron’s for the taking.
