LeBron James is in rarefied air.
On the night of his 38th birthday, the Lakers star—who started 1-for-5 from the field—exploded for a season-high 47 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and one block as Los Angeles defeated the Hawks, 130-121.
James is on pace to become the league’s all-time leading scorer within the 2022-23 NBA season. He is currently 527 career points (37,860) behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387).
In James delivering his iconic performance, Celtics star Jayson Tatum recognized just how close he is coming to accomplishing this enormous feat.
“Sometime later this season Bron gone be able to say he’s scored more points than anyone to ever play this game… lol that’s wild,” Tatum tweeted.
James has been nothing short of spectacular this season, averaging over 28 points per game in his 20th year in the league. If he were to play every game the rest of this year, he would need to average just 11.5 points per game to break the all-time scoring record by the season’s end.
Tatum has been superb in his own right: The Celtics star is putting up MVP numbers himself, averaging 31 points per game. And yet even he is awed by the newly-38-year-old James’s timeless performance.
While interviewing postgame with Lakers reporter Mike Trudell, guard Dennis Schroder reminded the four-time NBA champion that he called a 40-point performance before the game. However, the 18-time All-Star said he was initially unsure about his performance after the slow start.
“After starting 1-for-5 I didn’t know it was going to happen,” James told Trudell.
James has averaged 34.8 points per game in his last five outings. Los Angeles (15–21) sits at No. 13 in the Western Conference, but anything can happen with LeBron James at the helm. Now this historic milestone is seemingly within reach.
