When LeBron James surpassed Karl Malone ranked second in the regular season standings of NBA career, he turned his eyes firmly to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the current NBA history-best scorer.
James enters the 2022-23 season, which is his 20th season in the NBA. He only needs 1,326 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar's total career score of 38,387 points. Given that James scored at least 1,500 points in 18 of his previous 19 seasons, he seems likely to break the record this year, ending Abdul-Jabbar's 38-year history of the most scored in the NBA.
Abdul-Jabbar has been at the top of his career standings since April 5, 1984 - even eight months before James was born - when he broke the score he held before Wilt Chamberlain .
James is now in his 20th season, the same number Abdul-Jabbar has played in his legendary career. While the legendary Lakers big man released larger scoring numbers early in his career, James' long peak period (average of at least 25 PPGs in 15 consecutive seasons) closed the gap.
"Know that I'm about to break the record that might be the most popular in the NBA, and people say something that may never be done, I think it's super humble to myself. I think it's cool.
James started the season against Golden State Warriors , and he faced the team four times in the NBA Finals. When the two teams last met in March, James scored a season-high 56 points in the game of 19 of 31 shots, leading the Lakers to a victory.
