LeBron James – who bounded into the NBA two decades ago as a teen prodigy with a gift for passing and a passion for team play, an unconventional star who would be “more Magic Johnson than Michael Jordan” – claimed the league’s career scoring title Tuesday night.
With a fadeaway 15-foot jump shot late in the third quarter of the Lakers’ game against the Thunder, James scored his 39,388th point, pushing him past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, breaking what once seemed to be an unbreakable record.
Abdul-Jabbar had held the scoring title for nearly 39 years – more than half of the NBA’s 76-year existence.