LeBron James 38,387 Career Points & Counting

LeBron James Breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 1984 Record for Most Points of All Time

On Tuesday night, LeBron James became the all-time scoring leader for the NBA in the Los Angeles Lakers game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

LeBron James shoots the ball to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record on Tuesday in Los Angeles (A. Bernstein, 2023).

The previous record was set nearly 40 years ago by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, when he played for the Los Angeles Lakers. James has been in the NBA since 2003 when he was drafted to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Since then he has also played for the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, and solidified himself as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

“LeBron has proved that he should be up there with Michael Jordan and all of the other all time greats of basketball,” said Abigail Michael who has been an NBA fan for her whole life. “I’m very happy for him and think this accomplishment is very well deserved.”

“To be in the presence of such a legend and great as Kareem, it means so much to me. It’s very humbling,” James said following his record breaking 38,387th career point. “To everybody who’s ever been a part of this run with me the last 20 years, I just want to say thank you so much.”

Kareem Abdul- Jabbar was in attendance for LeBron’s record breaking night and offered his congratulations to him during the ceremony. Although it may seem nearly impossible for somebody to break LeBron’s record, many thought the same of Abdul-Jabbar when he broke the record in 1984.

“There are two young players I could see having the potential to possibly break LeBron’s record one day,” said Michael. “Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum are both already shining very early in their careers and I could see them being all time greats one day.”

Although LeBron James has been in the NBA for 20 years and is currently 38 years old, he shows no signs of retiring anytime soon. He says that in order for him to retire, he would love to play on the same team as his son for at least one season. His eldest son, Bronny is 18 years old and attends Sierra College. Therefore, he likely has plenty more time to solidify his spot as the greatest basketball player of all time.

Other all time scoring leaders for the NBA include Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan. James and Jordan are often compared to each other when having the conversation of who is the greatest player of all time.

“Nothing compares to old school basketball,” said Michael. “I think that Jordan has the GOAT status for now but we’ll see what happens in the future.”

The NBA season still has a few months left, meaning James has plenty more time to increase his career points and continue proving that he may be the greatest NBA player of all time.