LOS ANGELES — Pass first? Not this night.
Not with nearly 20,000 eyes watching him in a packed, breathless Crypto.com Arena, and millions more watching at home. They wanted LeBron James to shoot – clapped their hands and raised their voices. A roar erupted every time James touched the ball.
So James – the 18-year-old who stormed into the NBA in 2003 and smashed every expectation put in his path for 20 years – gave them what they wanted.
With 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter, after a rampage on the rim that had made the anticipation skyrocket, James bumped Oklahoma City’s Kenrich Williams with his right hip, then spun around into a turnaround fadeaway jumper – one of his signature shots – for his 12th field goal, his 36th point and into a place in NBA history no man has ever gone before.
James is now the NBA’s all-time leading regular-season scorer, a place in the record books it seemed inevitable that he would occupy for years now – even though the Akron native has so often been lauded for his passing in addition to his ability to get the ball in the bucket.
Twenty years and 1,410 games of his NBA career seemed to suddenly weigh down on James’ shoulders. After briefly running back toward the Lakers’ bench with his arms raised, James put his hands on his knees and began to weep. The tears flowed as his well-wishers came to greet him – including the woman who has been there from the beginning, his mother Gloria James.
The fastest man to every thousand-point plateau became the first NBA player to score 38,388 – a staggering figure, but one made all the more special by the man who had scored 38,387 and held the record for nearly 40 years, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
A prearranged timeout was called, and the 75-year-old Abdul-Jabbar took halfcourt to meet James and NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Silver officially declared James the NBA’s all-time leading scorer – but it felt somehow more official when Abdul-Jabbar raised a ceremonial basketball into the air, then turned to hand it to James. The two men, who have sometimes had a rocky relationship, shook hands and embraced.
“I thank you guys so much for allowing me to be a part of something I’ve always dreamed about,” James said while addressing the crowd.
While the record chase was plenty of entertainment for the sellout crowd on hand – many of whom shelled out extra hundreds and even thousands on the secondary market for a chance to witness history – the backdrop of the 133-130 loss was a blow for the Lakers’ diminishing chances to make the postseason. James made just one basket in the fourth quarter, finishing with 38 points – his team scored just 28 points in the final frame after scoring more than 30 in each of the previous three. And their 133 points allowed to the 12th-place Thunder was one of their worst defensive games of the season.
The Lakers (25-30) have only 27 games remaining and are still in 13th place in the Western Conference, and with a looming trade deadline Thursday afternoon, the team could be retooled before its next game against Milwaukee. One of the Lakers in incessant trade rumors, Russell Westbrook, scored 27 points, had eight assists and six turnovers in what could be his final game as a Laker, a turbulent year-and-a-half.
“The guys, they wanted to see Bron do what he did tonight,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “And I think the focus was about LeBron getting to the record rather than play actual basketball. … It sucks that we didn’t get the win on a night like this. … I’m happy that Bron was able to accomplish what he was able to accomplish, and now we can move on.”
The night got off to an inauspicious start for the record-watchers: James missed his first two attempts from the field, a floater and a step-back jumper. Three of his teammates had scored before he got on the board at the 7:03 mark, with a step-back 3-pointer from the corner.
But he kicked into gear soon after, and his intent was clear by early in the second quarter, when he made and-one baskets on back-to-back possessions.
A TNT microphone caught James talking to Bronny, his oldest son who is wrapping his senior year at Chatsworth’s Sierra Canyon High, at halftime: “Go ahead and get it?” the elder LeBron asked.
“Go ahead,” his son said.
James – who already held the NBA record for career postseason points (7,631) – got within single digits of the regular-season mark midway through the third quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers, one of the parts of his game that has been more hit-or-miss this season.
The record continued to run down as the Lakers unlocked their transition game – he scored his next three baskets on layups, whittling the chase to two points. A scoreboard high above the crowd counted off the points remaining that he needed to pass the record in all capital letters.
“He gave the people what they wanted in true LeBron fashion,” Ham said. “The biggest thing is to try to congratulate him. We love him.”
Abdul-Jabbar watched his nearly 40-year stewardship of the scoring record wane from a baseline seat near the Lakers’ bench. Abdul-Jabbar, who has always shied from the public eye, wore a black letterman’s jacket with his No. 33 and his nickname “Captain” on the right breast.
“I know what Kareem meant to this league,” Ham said. “He was one of the pillars that built this league.”
James also dressed for the occasion, donning a white headband. It was striking since James has largely eschewed headbands in recent years – but he wore a red one in his first NBA game in 2003.
Former Lakers and NBA veterans were everywhere: James Worthy, Dwyane Wade, Michael Cooper, Bob McAdoo, A.C. Green and Richard Jefferson. A number of VIPs from the Grammy Awards, held two nights earlier in the same building, came back for the game: Jay-Z, Bad Bunny, Usher and LL Cool J. James’ immediate family – his wife Savannah, his children Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri and his mother Gloria – sat courtside, and so did other key figures in James’ life, like Nike founder Phil Knight, business partner Maverick Carter and agent Rich Paul.
Several congratulatory videos played in the arena, and while the well-wishers included President Joe Biden, they also included pre-recorded messages from James’ family members, who had joined him on the court to celebrate the moment.
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