Barring injury, LeBron James should pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list some time in February or March. When LeBron was asked about Kareem after L.A.’s first preseason game, he was less than effusive about the former Lakers legend.
“No thoughts, and no relationship,” he said of Abdul-Jabbar.
Going into his 20th NBA season, James has 37,062 points, trailing Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time record of 38,387, which he set six months before LeBron was born, in 1984. At his career average of 27.1 points per game, it would take LeBron 49 contests to catch Kareem. He’s also 96 assists behind another Lakers great, Magic Johnson, for sixth place on the all-time list. If he keeps to his career average of 7.4 dimes per game, he’d catch Magic in 13 games.
But it’s no surprise that LeBron has no relationship with Kareem, who has been critical of him recently, particularly since he started his Substack. Last year, Abdul-Jabbar took him to task for doing the so-called “big balls dance” and drawing a $15,000 fine.
“For me, winning is enough,” Kareem lectured. “Why do you have to do a stupid dance and disrespect the other team on the court. It doesn’t make sense. GOATs don’t dance.”
In December, Kareem questioned a meme LeBron posted about COVID, writing that it “encouraged vaccine hesitancy, which puts lives and livelihoods at risk.” Yes, Kareem is a 75-year-old man arguing about memes. LeBron refused to engage, saying “No, I don’t have a response to Kareem at all.”
In April, Abdul-Jabbar was non-specific in his criticism, but said that LeBron should be “embarrassed” about some of the things he’d done:
“I admire the things that he’s done that have gotten all our attention. Sending a whole school to college? Wow. That’s amazing. His thoughtfulness and willingness to back it up with his wallet, you got to give him credit for that. So I’m not throwing stones. I just wish he wouldn’t — you know, some of the things he’s done, he should be embarrassed about. That’s just where I’m coming from.”
Abdul-Jabbar apologized two days later, but it seems like the damage has been done with his relationship with James. Meanwhile, Magic Johnson has been his usual laudatory self on Twitter when it comes to LeBron.
Even Kareem’s response was disrespectful to LeBron, only promising to attend the record-breaking game “if he can keep up his consistency.”
We’re sure Kareem will show up to see his 38-year-old record broken. We’re not sure if LeBron will care.
