When LeBron James passed
Karl Malone for second
on the NBA’s career regular-season points list, he set his sights firmly on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the
NBA’s current all-time leading scorer.
Abdul-Jabbar has been atop the career points list since April 5, 1984 — eight months before James was even born — when he broke the mark previously held by Wilt Chamberlain. Now James has that record within reach, needing 575 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar’s career total of 38,387.
At his career scoring average of 27.1 PPG, James would need 22 games to rack up that total, putting him on track to break the record on Feb. 11 against the Golden State Warriors. James has missed eight games this season. If he misses games at the same rate he did last season, the record-breaking game would come March 12 against the New York Knicks. Through 27 games this season, James is averaging 27.8 PPG, putting him ahead of his career pace.
We’ll have ongoing coverage of LeBron’s quest, including updated game-by-game projections and complete stats, throughout the season.
JAMES VS. ABDUL-JABBAR
Despite James missing eight games this season, he’s already surpassed Abdul-Jabbar’s point total during his entire 20th and final season. James has scored 751 points in 27 games in 2022-23; Abdul-Jabbar scored 748 for the 1988-89 season.