By Jerry Wein
LeBron James broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record and finished with 38 points (13-for-20 FGs), seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and four 3-pointers in a 133-130 loss to the Thunder.
LeBron entered the night needing 36 points to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record for most points in NBA history, and he reached it in the third quarter with a fadeaway from the elbow over Kenrich Williams.
In the 1,410th game of LeBron’s career, he eclipsed Kareem’s 38,387 points. With LeBron still likely to play a few more seasons, he should be able to hold onto this record for a long, long time. With this kind of record on the line, many players would have taken a lot of bad shots, but LeBron ended up shooting a high percentage.
The game stopped with 10.9 seconds left in the third to celebrate the King breaking the record, but he wasn’t able to add on to his record much after that. He scored two more points late in the fourth, but with 37 seconds left in the game, he checked out with his right foot appearing to be bothering him.
He came into the game with soreness in his left ankle, so regardless of how severe the injury is, it feels unlikely that he’ll play against the Bucks on Thursday. When you have more points than anyone else in league history, you can take a night off.
Just a couple of The King's most iconic buckets on the way to the scoring record 📸 pic.twitter.com/PWoFNnllBM
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 8, 2023
