Having Picked LeBron James Over Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas Hyped Up Following 40,000 Points Milestone

LeBron James is no stranger to the GOAT conversation, but there aren’t many people who put him above Michael Jordan. Isiah Thomas is one of the veterans who believes LBJ has surpassed MJ’s legacy. LeBron recently became the first player to score over 40,000 points in the NBA, something that only adds to his already strong case. Following his accomplishment, Thomas dedicated several posts to LeBron, acknowledging his greatness.

Even before LeBron passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list, Thomas vouched for the Lakers superstar as the greatest to ever do it. During a 2022 interview, he gave major props to LeBron for being consistent with his game for almost two decades. The 2-time NBA champion said, “LeBron James to me is the best who’s ever played. Not only does the eye test verify it, but then now you look at his body of work, in terms of data and statistics to support it.”

The NBA veteran said that LeBron has been effective in both the regular season and the playoffs for almost two decades. Based on this stat, he should only be compared to Kareem who also had a stellar career spanning two decades. Thomas said, “When you look at playoff points, LeBron James is one, two, three in every single category [points, assists, rebounds].” Creating a distinction between LeBron and others, Thomas said that players who are #1 on rebounds are not very high up on the points chart.

As for LeBron’s regular season and playoff stats, it’s stellar, to say the least. He averages 27.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 1,475 regular season games. The numbers go up for the 4-time NBA champion in the playoffs. He averages 28.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 282 games.

Coming to Thomas’s words, it is inevitable that countless Michael Jordan fans will be beyond incensed due to the Pistons legend. However, with James racking up records despite being a year away from 40 now, calling LeBron James the GOAT is starting to seem less like an unpopular opinion by the day.

NBA veterans congratulated LeBron James on 40,000 points milestone

LeBron’s milestone was a moment that’d go down in the NBA history books. So, it was obvious that millions of people would tune in to witness that. Among those millions of people, there were also some NBA veterans who have witnessed LeBron’s career from the jump. The Pistons legend shared a post on X, saying that LBJ is “something else”, while fellow Lakers legend Magic Johnson expressed his happiness for being able to witness that moment. Both their posts can be seen below:

While the two gentlemen congratulated the 39-year-old on his record-breaking night, Gilbert Arenas made a joke about how he contributed to those 40,000 points.

Arenas posted a picture where he can be seen defending against LeBron. LBJ’s average against Arenas is 27.3 points. So, maybe that’s the contribution he is talking about.