LeBron James. One step away from greatness

Soon, LeBron James must beat the seemingly endless number of points in NBA history. It’s been going for 20 seasons. And already this year he has managed to seize the throne as the best sniper in the league.

James’ benchmark is 38,387 points, set by Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1989. The New York native played in the 60s and 80s. Overall, he collected 20 seasons in the strongest league in the world. During that time, he fired 15837 shots from the field (just one 3-pointer) and 6712 from the free throw line. Karim is known for his “sky hook”, which is impossible to throw at medium distance. The center has trained him so hard that he’s become a deadly weapon for his Los Angeles Lakers rivals.

This is how Karim achieved California club jersey status as top scorer, just as James does now. Notably, the previous record, set in 1973, was held by LAL player Wilt Chamberlain (31,419 career points). Let’s keep watching how important LeBron’s success can be to basketball, shall we?

“A goal record has never been a goal for me because I was imprisoned for a team game after all,” LeBron told an ESPN reporter.

Let’s check it out. James has consistently shared team shots with names like Wade, Irving, Davis, Westbrook. In total, he delivers 7.4 assists relative to his career average. The 19/20 season overall was outstanding: the basketball player averaged double-double points and assists.

On the other hand, Karim’s central periods were the precursors of his team’s attacks. Assists were not Abdul-Jabbar’s mission, but he was one-on-one under the basket, with an exceptional height of 218cm, decent arm span and an elite ability to release the ball at a point where even blocking was impossible. firmly protect the defenders – his main weapon was the “sky hook”.

However, the legendary center had 5,660 assists. That’s slightly less than an average of 4 per game.

Percentage of practice from the game and three-pointers. Pivots tend to miss less because they shoot closer to the basket (or point to forwards like LeBron) than forwards. Karim’s hit percentage is 72. The basketball player, on the other hand, won almost all of the points he scored from the 2-point field goal attempts. It’s different with LeBron. During his time, defenders already knew how to double down against an attacking opponent, how to close the 3 second zone, and how to block approaches to their circle as a whole with a pair of tall men. Moreover, they did not yet know the “2 more than 3” formula in “zero”, basketball was still mostly “two points”.

That’s how LeBron learned to shoot from a distance. Especially in Miami. Especially after Gregg Popovich’s 2013 finale with San Antonio. When LeBron James, the best NBA basketball player of that time, is turned off defensively by the clumsy fat man, Boris Diao. He knew James’ shooting problems and was only two steps away from him on defense. The “Shah” missed most of his attempts from afar and was unable to get under the ring due to his opponent’s unsuitable dimensions. Without Ray Allen, we would not have witnessed one of the best series in league final history.

So now LeBron fired exactly 2,210 times more 3-pointers than Kareem did. And this figure continues to grow. James’ shooting percentage is just over 50% (better than the league average), 3-pointers are almost 35%. In other words, both basketball players performed impressively for their positions.

“It’s an incredible thing to watch. He’s in his 20th season in the NBA and what he’s done is scoring 30, 40 points almost every night. A unique actor,” Luka Doncic comments on LeBron’s performances.

In the last 5 games, James has been putting up: against Houston – 48 points, against Sacramento – 32 points, against Memphis (with their outstanding defense) – 23 points, against Portland – 37 points, against the Clippers – 46 number. In this series, the team won three times and lost twice, walking away with one win to the play-in zone, three wins to the play-off zone.

Let’s have a look at the performance indicator per game, shall we? “The King” is actually surprising, currently showing his second career average at 30.3 points per game of the season. James has averaged more than 30 points for the third time in his entire NBA career. Yes, and we celebrate our 38th anniversary on December 30th. If you calculate the point/season indicator, the forward writes down 27.2 points for each of his 20 years in the NBA. Karim’s figures are slightly lower – 24.6.

Which of the outstanding snipers had similar results? Jordan and Chamberlain scored more than 30 points in a season, but played much fewer games. Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter played more games than forward LAL, but only 20.7 and 16.7 points per game. The person who could truly challenge the Akron native was Allen Iverson. 5 seasons with 26.7 points per game and more than 30 points per season, Iverson Kareem’s main rival could have been much earlier. However, only James passed the test by record distance.

When will LeBron break Kareem’s “eternal” points record? When should we stay connected to our computer monitors so we don’t miss this important moment? 178 points missing (as of January 25). If the basketball player earns his norm for the season, Karim’s record should fall in the six games he faces Indiana on the night of February 2-3. If we still get the average stats for LeBron’s career, then we should move forward one game and expect to face New Orleans on the night of February 5. We will also consider two consecutive meetings on the calendar on the night of January 26 and January 31 – February 1, which means a possible rest for the leader of the Californians.

Therefore, you and I must prepare for the Golden State game on the night of February 12. It will be emblematic of James to break his record against a principled opponent who lost three times in the NBA Finals and was great thanks to in 2016.

LeBron has faced many trials and many defeats in his career. But each time he got up from his knees and kept walking. After losing the 2015 final: “Everything is fine. I will continue training. I will continue to achieve my goal.” And these are not the words of a crazy statistician. These are the words of a grown man who knows he can win titles and break records.

LeBron knows he’s the greatest basketball player of our time.

Vyacheslav Shevchenko