Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green said if LeBron James is passing the all-time scoring record and the Warriors have a game, he would go to LeBron’s game and witness history.
FS1 talking head Nick Wright, a noted LeBron stan, took it a step further. Wright thinks there should be no other games and all NBA eyes should be locked on the King. What should the NBA do when LeBron passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time scoring mark?
“I have no problem with Draymond saying he’d skip a Warriors game to watch LeBron break the scoring record. It’s going to be one of the biggest moments in NBA history. … When LeBron’s a game away, cancel all the other games and have all of NBA royalty there.”
"I have no problem with Draymond saying he'd skip a Warriors game to watch LeBron break the scoring record. It's going to be one of the biggest moments in NBA history. … When LeBron's a game away, cancel all the other games & have all of NBA royalty there." — @getnickwright pic.twitter.com/7qM015OjoF
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) March 25, 2022
Abdul-Jabbar has been the league’s all-time scoring leader since 1984. That’s 38 years. He finished his career with 38,387 points. It’s certainly a hallowed mark.
But does the casual fan know that number? Do diehard NBA fans know that was the all-time scoring mark?
Basketball’s records don’t lend themselves to capture fan imagination the way baseball all time numbers do. If you say 56, every sports fan knows that’s the all-time hitting streak by Joe DiMaggio.
Depending on where you land on the PED issues. You know what the numbers 762 or 755 mean. Or the numbers 73 or 61.
Let’s look at what the league did when Steph Curry became the all-time three-point leader. By the way did anyone know what the mark held by Ray Allen was? 2,974. That number doesn’t quite sit in your mind the way baseball numbers do.
For that game Allen was in the house, and the man in third place at the time, Reggie Miller, was on the TNT broadcast for the game. Miller is now fourth, since passed by James Harden.
It’s highly unlikely that commissioner Adam Silver will cancel all other games. Now what might be possible is, the NBA schedule makers could try and guess when Bron will pass Abdul-Jabbar and make sure all those games are on national TV on a doubleheader night. A TNT Thursday night game where his Lakers game and one other game are the only ones on the schedule. Or an ABC Saturday night primetime game.
At least if it’s a night on national TV you can try to plan to have Abdul-Jabbar in the house and other NBA luminaries.
While the moment will be cool and the game will pause for applause, recognition, etc., by the next day nobody will remember the number. All-time scoring, steals or assists numbers just don’t register.
Despite a poor Lakers season, LeBron has played well individually and when he passed Karl Malone to move into second place, he was asked about passing Abdul-Jabbar.
“I will not allow myself to think about it. I’ve always just played the game the way I’ve been playing it over the years, and these things have just happened organically by just going out and playing the game the right way. Hope to accomplish that at some point in my career, but I won’t think about it too much,” James said.
