With over 36,000 points scored in his career so far, LeBron James is third on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list and on track to take second place before his 38th birthday.
Despite this amazing feat, James hardly gets mentioned as an All-Time scorer and it’s something that apparently strikes his nerve.
(via The Shop: Uninterrupted)
“The crazy thing is I’m not like a natural scorer,” James said. “I love getting my guys involved, I’ve always been that way. The point of seeing my teammate succeed off my pass. I’ve always been that type of guy. And to sit on top of the food chain in the most points scored in the history of the game is like it’s weird to me. When they talk about the best scorers of all time, they never mention my name. It pisses me off. They don’t ever bring my name to it.”
True, scoring isn’t James’ first priority on the court. He’s always looking to share the ball and set his teammates up for easy points. Still, he’s unstoppable when he wants to put the ball in the hole.
Through his 18-year career, LeBron has only had one season where he has averaged less than 25 points per game. It was his rookie campaign back in 2004. 18 years later, he’s a 1x Scoring Champ and career 27-point per game scorer.
Richard Jefferson is one of LeBron’s former teammates who has raved about his scoring ability.
“LeBron James. I hear exactly what you’re saying, and people might disagree with me. But understand this – the greatest scorer is, its consistency, its longevity, and its amount. It might not be these crazy numbers. For me, I was never a 40-point-per-game (guy). Every night, you were going to get, at my best, between 17 and 30 every single night. I was not a 9-point, then 51, 22. I was just very consistent.”
In a league where guys like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Allen Iverson, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and Steph Curry have dominated the offensive side of basketball, a guy like LeBron, who does so many other things, is going to get overlooked and underappreciated.
Perhaps it’s time he joins the conversation with those other guys.
If not, that’s okay. He will only continue to build and strengthen his case as time goes on and he breaks more records.
