LeBron James managed to cross Karl Malone for 2nd in the all-time scoring list earlier this week, yet another impressive achievement for the King. He is now only behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in the regular season and has shown no signs of slowing down despite being past the expected prime of his career.
Ever since he won the championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James’ name has been mentioned in the GOAT debate. The majority still awards the crown of the greatest of all time to Michael Jordan, but LeBron’s increasingly impressive achievements have several fans and media members re-evaluating their position.
Chriss Broussard tweeted about the subject after James passed Malone, pointing out just how impressive LeBron’s career numbers are. A parallel to two of the greatest of all time in MJ and Majic Johnson gives further perspective to why some people remain adamant that James is the NBA GOAT.
Y’all know I have MJ ahead of LeBron, but this is amazing: LeBron (often called a mix of MJ & Magic) will finish with more points than MJ and more assists than Magic. Impressive point to note as LeBron continues his assault on the record book.
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) March 20, 2022
“Y’all know I have MJ ahead of LeBron, but this is amazing: LeBron (often called a mix of MJ & Magic) will finish with more points than MJ and more assists than Magic. Impressive point to note as LeBron continues his assault on the record book.”
LeBron James is currently 7th in assists when looking at the all-time leaderboard. He is just over 100 assists behind Magic Johnson though, who had 10,141 and is set to cross him in his first few games next season. Before he’s done playing James could go beyond Steve Nash who is currently in 4th place too, although catching John Stockton at 15,000 seems very much an impossibility.
Of course, the many losses in the NBA finals will always count against LeBron James, along with the fact that he hasn’t won as many championships as Michael Jordan, but if he crosses Kareem and ends up 3rd all-time in assists, his case will be as solid as any other player barring Jordan himself.
