LeBron James is going to make history and break the NBA’s all-time scoring record, and at this point, it’s just a matter of when and how.
He will have his first legitimate chance at passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by attempting to score more than 36 points when the Lakers host the Oklahoma City Thunder in Los Angeles at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday evening.
The game will be broadcast on TNT and Stan Van Gundy will serve as the color commentator as LeBron attempts to break history. He will be joined by play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson and reporter Stephanie Ready.
Van Gundy, who recently started using slang words like “bussin” during his broadcasts, caught up with For The Win to discuss the big game. He spoke about LeBron, Kareem, his hilarious Twitter interaction with Kevin Durant, and more.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
The first time you saw LeBron play, would you have believed this could happen?
Stan Van Gundy: I don’t think you ever think this is going to happen. It was my first year as a head coach when LeBron was a rookie. Obviously, he was great as a rookie. I will say with my bias: I think Dwyane Wade should have beaten him out for Rookie of the Year. But anyway, you could tell that he was great.
I grew up as a UCLA fan and a huge fan of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If you would have told me then that this guy is going to break Kareem’s record, I would have just rolled my eyes. If you had said that about anybody, I would have rolled my eyes. 38,000 and some points? I mean, come on! Nobody is going to do offensively what Kareem has done. So, no, there is no way I would have predicted this.
You could see then that LeBron James was going to be a special player and an All-Star-level guy. But you’re going to tell me at 38 years old, he’s going to average 30.0 points per game? No, come on. There is no way. It’s beyond belief. Even as hyped as he was, maybe the most hyped guy to come out of high school maybe forever, I still think it would have been a stretch to have expected this. I think anybody who says this is exactly what they foresaw is lying.
What is the most impressive aspect of the scoring record? Is it longevity?
Let me try to put LeBron James imminent all-time NBA scoring record in perspective. There will very soon be only 6 men (Kareem, Malone, Jordan, Bryant, Nowitzki and Chamberlain) within 10,000 points of James. 10,000 points more than all but 6 players in history!
— Stan Van Gundy (@realStanVG) February 6, 2023
SVG: Look, it’s our biggest record in the NBA. It’s our home run record. It rewards both excellence and longevity. You have to be great for a long, long time to get to where LeBron is going. It’s a phenomenal record.
You have to have relatively good health. LeBron had great health. It’s been a little bit more of a struggle since he came to L.A. but he had great health. You have to go out there every night and you have to score at a really high level for 20 years. He’s probably going to end up scoring considerably over 40,000 points. If we just look at that, and what that really is, you have to score 2,000 points per year for 20 years. If you play 80 games per season, which is hard to do in and of itself, you’ve got to average 25.0 points per game. You have to play a lot of games for a lot of years and score a lot of points every time you go out and play. It’s mind-boggling to think of it.
Here is the other thing: LeBron is going to score over 40,000 points. There are only six other guys who have scored 30,000 points in this league. There are only going to be half a dozen guys who are going to end up within 10,000 points of him. I mean, come on! It’s an incredible, incredible record.
I’ve seen everybody try to weigh in on where he fits in among the greats and who is the best player ever. There are only a handful of guys worthy of being in that conversation. He has had the most accomplished career of anyone who has ever played in the NBA and I don’t think it’s that close. Look at the scoring record and he’s also top-5 in assists and top-10 in steals. Look at all of his All-Star awards and his longevity as well as his team success. So if you put all of those things together: You can’t challenge that.
What else stands out to you about LeBron’s achievements in the NBA?
SVG: For me, beyond all of his accomplishments, this guy has been in the national spotlight for over 20 years. In an age where everybody with a cell phone can be a reporter looking to catch somebody doing something wrong, there is nothing on him. For over 20 years in the national spotlight as the top star in the NBA, and the worst thing anybody can say about him is that they didn’t like the way he handled The Decision. We’ve got nothing on him.
It’s phenomenal. Everywhere he goes, people have the camera out on him taking video. All he has to do is be rude to somebody one time on the street. The way he has represented himself and his family and the teams he has been on has been impeccable and to me, that’s a greater accomplishment than anything he has done on the court — which has been considerable. I was an old coach and there was worse you could come up with on me.
He has a school in Akron, Ohio. This is a guy that has really given back as time has gone on. He has used his voice more and more to speak out about various things and injustices. I just can’t imagine how anybody could represent the NBA better than LeBron both on and off the court.
Do you have any one-on-one experiences with LeBron that you can share?
SVG: When I was in Orlando, we played an exhibition against them in China. He was kind enough to sign a basketball for me as a gift to my son who was very young at the time. But the relationship I have with LeBron is one-sided. I’ve coached against him. I looked it up. More than 1,000 points of his were against my team. It’s just respect for somebody who had to coach against him and prepare for him and try to limit him. It’s tremendous respect.
FTW: You coached him in his first All-Star Game, too, right?
SVG: Yeah, him and Wade. 2005 was their first All-Star Game. I remember talking to all my assistants, Bob McAdoo and Erik Spoelstra and Ron Rothstein and Keith Askins. I remember saying that what stood out to me is you have one of those [expletive] practices before the All-Star Game as if we’re actually going to coach or something.
Even just going there to practice and into the game, the way he carried himself is that he belonged right there. He was comfortable with it and not the least bit in awe. It’s something he probably expected for himself for a long time. Some people are way off base. They take that self-assuredness as arrogance. I didn’t take it that way at all. He didn’t come across to me as arrogant at all. He came across as someone who was right where he expected to be and right where he thought he belonged.
What are you most looking forward to about being a part of the actual call itself?
An actual thing Stan Van Gundy said tonight: "LeBron's playmaking is bussin"pic.twitter.com/3Uc2aSx5dS
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) January 25, 2023
SVG: If he breaks the record in our game, I’m looking forward to sitting back and listening to Brian Andeson’s call. He’ll be great. I’m going to listen to the crowd. If it happens in our game, that’s what I’m looking forward to. I just want to be able to celebrate not only LeBron James’ accomplishment but all the other people as it’s gone along — the other scoring leaders that have been surpassed. I think they’ll get discussed.
The last three have been on the Lakers. It’s been a long time from Wilt to Kareem to LeBron. It’s great to go back and honor those guys. We will probably talk about the other guys who were close like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain and Karl Malone. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to celebrate the greats of the game as LeBron surpasses all of them.
How important do you think it is for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be there?
SVG: I think it’s fantastic. I think it’s one of the best things that you can do in sports. When there is a significant record and the previous record holder is there, it’s like the proverbial passing of the torch. If you talk about what LeBron has done off the court, Kareem is one of the smartest and greatest people we have ever had in the NBA.
For Kareem to pass it on to LeBron, they’ve had their clashes about some off-the-court stuff. But it’s two intelligent and thoughtful people. I was a huge fan of Kareem. I was a huge UCLA fan growing up in Southern California. I never thought I would see anybody surpass him. It will be a thrill for me to see him at the game. He was somebody I looked up to and admired as a player. But what he’s done as an activist and as a writer promoting social consciousness for a lot of people, they look up to him for that too. I’ll be thrilled that he’s there and I think Lakers fans will be, too.
Can you tell me about your recent interaction on Twitter with Kevin Durant?
SVG: [Laughs] I made a point about guys in the 1990s playing more games even though they didn’t have as many strength and conditioning and medical staff. They practiced more and played more games. He tweeted back, “Stan spittin” and I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t think he was going after me, but I thought he was disagreeing with me. So then I responded and he told me he was agreeing with me. So I had to learn a new term. It became a little bit funny and people had some fun with me about it. Anytime you can get a laugh, it’s a good day.
