Case in points: LeBron and Kareem will finally share a bond
LeBron James, typically gregarious, could not muster any charm. It was early October and, after a preseason game, the attention shifted to his relationship with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as James prepared to break his NBA record for career points. James refused to pretend.
“Nah, no thoughts,” he said when probed about the record and whether he had any personal connection to the legendary center. “And no relationship.”
James wore dark sunglasses and a black shirt. He cocked his head as he gave the terse answer. His final trek to history began under the iciest conditions.
It won’t end that way. With James primed to set a new scoring standard any game now, Abdul-Jabbar has promised to be gracious and enthusiastic when it happens, and James figures to react accordingly. Both are too classy to behave otherwise.
Yet it would be awkward not to acknowledge and lament a relationship between the two that seems nonexistent at best and strained at worst. And it would be superficial to enjoy the impending moment without hoping it will help a pair of legends – who share similarities as striking as their differences – finally forge a bond.
Abdul-Jabbar, a prolific writer and thinker who never shies from any subject matter, has criticized James the past few years, mostly over the Chosen One’s flippant social media stances during the coronavirus pandemic. Abdul-Jabbar expressed regret and apologized for the strength of some of his remarks, and he also has praised James’s activism repeatedly. Nevertheless, they share nothing meaningful despite their ties to Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers.
In 75 years of life, Abdul-Jabbar never has been warm and fuzzy. He’s introverted. Some have described him as aloof. But for all that he lacks as an intimate communicator, he’s a tireless humanitarian and dedicated steward of basketball. His appreciation of history drives him to embrace James. Abdul-Jabbar reportedly will be in attendance when James breaks the record. An opportunity exists for a breakthrough.
“When I broke Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring record in 1984 – the year LeBron was born – it bothered Wilt, who’d had a bit of a one-sided rivalry with me since I’d started doing so well in the NBA,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote on Substack in October. “I don’t feel that way toward LeBron. Not only will I celebrate his accomplishment, I will sing his praises unequivocally.”
James shouldn’t just accept congratulations. He should use the cordial occasion to do what he does better than scoring: see the entire floor. In passing Abdul-Jabbar, James can provide an assist by showing intention in the manner that he recognizes and celebrates a legend who is starting to become underrated. Abdul-Jabbar, who neither flaunts celebrity nor craves promotion, could use a subtle boost from James, a master in this era of controlling narratives.
There’s a reward behind the social grace, too. James’s connection to Abdul-Jabbar, even though both have ignored it until now, is also the key to the greatest source of unequivocal and unending respect for what he has accomplished.
Unknowingly, James has been chasing Abdul-Jabbar since high school. Abdul-Jabbar was the obvious standard, yet he was never billed as such, and that speaks more to the distortion of hype than their stylistic differences.
It was sexier to compare James’s height, flair and court vision to Magic Johnson. It felt more grand to fixate on the No. 23 James wore for most of his career and measure his highlights, marketability and cultural influence against the vast greatness of Michael Jordan. But if you think about the themes behind the icon, James has more in common with Abdul-Jabbar than he does any other superstar in basketball history.
They were teen phenoms – the most precocious of all – who exceeded their prodigious expectations. They define their eras on and off the court, through feats and activism. Now, with James thundering toward the all-time scoring mark, the record book soon will reflect that the kid from Akron – anointed King before he could get a driver’s license – has surpassed Abdul-Jabbar in enjoying the longest reign the game has witnessed.
After the 2016 NBA Finals, James couldn’t revel in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ improbable comeback from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the 73-win Golden State Warriors without expressing his hunger. He had just completed an MVP performance and ended Cleveland’s 52-year pro championship drought. But while drenched in champagne, he still wanted more. He wanted to be like Mike.
“My motivation is this ghost I’m chasing,” James told Sports Illustrated that June night. “The ghost played in Chicago.”
Later, during a conversation with his friends and business partners during an episode of ESPN’s “More Than an Athlete” series, James made a bolder declaration about his triumph with the Cavaliers: “That one right there made me the greatest player of all time. That’s how I felt.”
It’s a fun thing to say when you’re feeling yourself and trying to make a statement that you’re not finished. But the career arcs of Jordan and James differ too much. Cross-generational sports debates are tricky. It’s better to itemize each individual superstar and focus on the specific traits and accomplishments that left an imprint on the game. It allows you to appreciate greatness in sports as more than an accumulation of triumphant evidence intended to sway imaginary jurors.
Longevity is James’s crown, one that might prove impossible to remove from his head. The career scoring title will be the most prestigious jewel on it. It will be his most durable achievement, his most undisputed footprint and the statistic that will make him singular. Perhaps that will be enough for James to abandon participation in the inane Greatest of All-Time debate that none of basketball’s giants can definitively win.
“I think it’s one of the greatest records in sports in general,” said James, who stands at 38,352 career points, 36 shy of history. “I think it’s up there with the home run record in baseball. It’s one of those records that you just don’t ever see or think that would be broken.”
It’s difficult to remember the number because it’s so big, especially when attempting to say it aloud: 38,387.
“I know it’s 38 something,” James said.
It’s not the number that matters most. It’s the man holding the record. In 1966, Chamberlain passed Bob Pettit to capture the crown, and he held it for 18 years. Abdul-Jabbar has been the standard for 38 years.
Abdul-Jabbar passed Chamberlain on April 5, 1984. Eight months later, on Dec. 30 of that year, James was born. Abdul-Jabbar was just shy of 37 when he passed Chamberlain, and he played five more seasons before he retired, at age 42, after playing 20 years.
James, who just turned 38, is already in Year 20 and averaging 30.0 points a game. In his final year, at the same stage, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 10.1 points. By the end of his career, James will have persisted in dominance longer than any NBA player.
Because he jumped to the NBA from high school, James was able to stack NBA numbers for four more years of his youth. Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor, spent four years at UCLA. As a late-career star, James won’t match the team success Abdul-Jabbar and the Showtime Lakers experienced. But barring dramatic changes to a game in which players are becoming less durable, his scoring record and overall longevity could become a truly unattainable standard. He’s almost certain to eclipse 40,000 points, and it’s not preposterous anymore to imagine him hanging around long enough to make a legitimate run at 45,000.
Good luck breaking that record.
“It’s always a possibility, but it’s going to be really tough,” Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, who entered the league at 19, said recently. “You got to have a guy that plays for 20 years. If you’re saying me, there’s no way. I’m not playing that much.”
This week, the NBA will commemorate not just a scorer but an unstoppable force whose passion for basketball has yet to diminish. Abdul-Jabbar was similar but in his own low-key, graceful way. Combined, the two players represent more than half of the NBA’s history, 40 of the league’s 77 seasons. But their careers haven’t intersected until now.
“Every time a record is broken,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote before the season, “all people are elevated.”
No question, the game needs to experience that high.