Over nearly two decades of dominance, LeBron James has cemented an NBA career that rivals the best. As an 18x All-Star, 18x All-NBA player, and 4x MVP, the King has seen and done almost everything there is to do in the sport.
Now, he’s on the cusp of, arguably, his biggest achievement yet. At 38,127 points scored, LeBron is just 260 away from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list and it may be the final piece he needs to solidify his claim as the GOAT.
But if you ask Miami Heat President Pat Riley, who helped LeBron win his first two championships, the All-Time scoring list is actually secondary to LeBron’s drive to win titles.
Here’s what he said in a recent chat with ESPN:
The Lakers, however, sit 12th in the conference as they await the return of All-NBA forward Anthony Davis from injury. It’s not exactly the same chance to win a championship that Abdul-Jabbar had with the 1985-86 Lakers. But there’s still a chance.
To Riley, that hope, that opportunity to compete for a championship, is everything at this stage in a player’s career.
“That’s where LeBron is,” he said. “I’m not speaking to anything that he might say in the media, but that’s his only reason to continue to play. Breaking the scoring record will be big for him if it happens, and it will happen. But he wants to win titles; that’s what drives him. And so for him to continue to play at this level, with that hope that this team is going to come together out there and Anthony Davis gets back, I think they got a shot. I really do. And I believe he believes that too.”
The Lakers haven’t been doing much winning this season, but James has been going off all the same with averages of 29.8 points on 50.8% shooting.
It’s a unique position for James, who is used to making deep playoff runs year after year. The question is, is there another deep playoff run left in this Lakers team?
Can The Lakers Turn Their Season Around?
In a lot of ways, the Lakers are a lot better off now than they were to start the season, especially with Rui Hachimura in the rotation.
“I think it’s a much better trade for the Lakers yes because if you think about what the Lakers lost…. when I look at if trades are good or bad for a respective organization, it’s not just about what they got, it’s also about what did they give up to get what they got,” said one NBA insider on the Hachimura deal. “You gave up Kendrick Nunn, he hasn’t worked in L.A., that’s safe to say and you gave up future picks, second-round picks. Bleep those picks is what you hear all the time. If there’s an opportunity to get better, (then) get better and Rui Hachimura, he’s young and he’s just scratching the surface. I think it’s a low-risk, high-reward trade for the Los Angeles Lakers.”
At 22-25 on the season, the Lakers still have a lot of work to do before they can consider themselves a lock for the playoffs, much less the title, but they are finally trending up after some ugly moments.
For LeBron, he’s just hoping that this latest move makes a real difference for his team and that the Lakers will be competitive by the time the postseason rolls around. Passing Kareem’s All-Time scoring record is just icing on the cake.
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