LeBron James in the argument of basketball GOAT after breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time record
Whenever “the greatest” is debated the only certainty is that nailing your colours to a mast will get someone’s goat. LeBron James has now scored more regular-season points than any other NBA player.
He surpassed the 34-year mark of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and after nice words about other greats he duly let slip: “I always feel like I am the best to ever play this game.”
Any attempt to close the case tends to open a can of worms. Perhaps it is wise to remember the words of Muhammad Ali when it comes to this ranking hoopla. “I am the greatest,” he said definitively. “I said that even before I knew I was.” Pelé v Diego Maradona, Don Bradman v Sachin Tendulkar, John Lennon v Paul McCartney, it is, as James added, “great barbershop talk”.
But you can at least make a good case for James as basketball’s GOAT (greatest of all time) without being laughed at. Conventional wisdom will have Michael Jordan in a pantheon of one.
Undoubtedly the most famous basketball player, and a man with more points per game than James in both the regular and post-seasons, Jordan had two “threepeats” for six NBA titles to James’ four. And there was also the insatiable will and demonic demands he put on his teammates.
Synonymous with a great team at Chicago Bulls and a crossover icon who spawned an industry, Jordan showed the rest a clean pair of cushioned heels and set a benchmark in docudrama with The Last Dance. Not even close, then, and a big, fat cigar.
Some will argue it is not just James v Jordan and that Wilt Chamberlain also averaged more points per game. Lest we forget, it was also Kareem’s record. A different sort of player from a different age, this 7ft 2in titan missed out on years to college and played much of his career without a three-point line.
Indeed, he scored just one three-pointer in his 38,387 points and can also claim to be one of the more remarkable polymaths in sporting history. I was lucky enough to sit down with him once and he spoke about his points, beating cancer, writing a novel about Sherlock Holmes’ brother Mycroft, turning down $1 million (£830,000) to join the Harlem Globetrotters when in college — “I didn’t want to be intellectually handicapped for life” — starring in Airplane! and his role in the Civil Rights Movement. He was also touched by tragedy and was a pallbearer at the funerals of children murdered in the Hanafi Muslim massacre in 1973.
The two have had a sometimes-cold relationship, but the mutual appreciation was evident on Tuesday after Abdul-Jabbar watched James make his mark as the LA Lakers lost to Oklahoma Thunder. “What he has done off the court is more important than what he’s doing on the court,” the 75-year-old said.
Off the court, James has paid for a school in his home of Akron, Ohio, to combat disastrous drop-out rates and ploughed millions into after-school clubs. He also donated $2.5 million to an Ali exhibition at the Smithsonian and has been a leading, oft-criticised, voice in the fight against racism.
On it, it is a great sporting achievement even to put himself into the GOAT argument. He overhauled Abdul-Jabbar in 150 fewer games. He is more than 6,000 points ahead of Jordan, albeit having played an extra 338 games; he has made 4,721 more assists and 3,711 more turnovers; his field goal and three-point percentages are better. And there is a theory that he is more of a playmaker.
It has not been an easy ride. When he left Cleveland Cavaliers for Miami Heat in 2010, announcing the switch live on TV, the Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert dubbed it a “shameful display of selfishness”. Jesse Jackson, the American activist, responded by saying Gilbert had a “slave master mentality”. The Decision lasted 75 minutes and invited mockery as well as nine million viewers. Maintaining this penchant for melodrama, when James made his landmark fadeaway on Tuesday, they stopped the game for tributes.
It was different when he joined the Lakers in 2018 and a mural hailing him as “The King of LA” was defaced with “LeFraud” graffiti. Even the paean in the LA Times yesterday, hailing him as better than Jordan, admitted: “He has, honestly, had very few singularly shining Lakers moments.” It noted his team-mates did not flock around him after his record-breaking shot and added: “Few Lakers fans would even acknowledge James as a top-five Lakers great.”
Yet he has won titles with three teams and various tactical systems. If Jordan would always rise to the occasion when it mattered, James has been pretty good in “clutch moments” too. One of his plays from the 2016 NBA Finals even has a Wikipedia page. “The Block” was pivotal in the outcome of the deciding game against Golden State Warriors, with James achieving the unprecedented feat of leading both finals teams in points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks. Now, at 38, he is still playing to a high level, still scoring 30 points a game. The debate will go on. And so will an extraordinary career.
