When LeBron James
passed Karl Malone
for second on the NBA’s career regular-season points list, he set his sights firmly on
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s current all-time leading scorer.
Abdul-Jabbar has been atop the career points list since April 5, 1984 — eight months before James was
even born — when he broke the mark previously held by Wilt Chamberlain. Now James has that record
within reach, needing 399 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar’s career total of 38,387.
At his career scoring average of 27.2 PPG, James would need 14 games to rack up that total, putting him
on track to break the record on Feb. 11 against the Golden State Warriors. James has missed 10 games
this season. If he misses games at the same rate he did last season, the record-breaking game would come
March 7 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Through 33
games this season, James is averaging 29.1 PPG, putting him ahead of his career pace.
We’ll have ongoing coverage of LeBron’s quest, including updated game-by-game projections and complete
stats, throughout the season.
JAMES VS. ABDUL-JABBAR
Despite James missing 10 games this season, he has already surpassed
Abdul-Jabbar’s point total during his entire 20th and final season. James has scored 962 points in 33
games in 2022-23; Abdul-Jabbar scored 748 for the 1988-89 season.