The Los Angeles Lakers might not be having a wonderful season but their star player, LeBron James, sure is.
He has been on fire all year, scoring an average of 29.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists a game.
And, yes, he’s doing all of this as a 37-year-old man.
James is proving that even nearly two decades into his career, he is still playing with heart, enthusiasm, and grit every single night.
Because of this, he is setting records.
It remains to be seen if the Lakers will even make it into the postseason but this year will always be remembered as one when James overcame age and adversity to once again prove he’s one of the best of all time.
Chasing Kareem
The latest record he is expected to break is related to one of his heroes: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In the Lakers’ game against the Brooklyn Nets, James scored 33 points and was just 104 points away from surpassing Abdul-Jabbar for the most points scored in NBA history across the regular season and the playoffs.
Once this happens . Lebron will be the GOAT . Idc . 👑🐐 pic.twitter.com/5h56d3YFqI
— Maxisnicee (@maxisnicee) January 27, 2022
James has scored 44,045 points, while Abdul-Jabbar backed up 44,149 in his career.
That number didn’t change on Thursday night because James sat out the game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Considering his average output, it’s all very likely that he will surpass the current record within just weeks.
On top of that, he is also on track to overcome Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA’s all-time scoring leader soon too.
In other words, James is on track to finish this season as one of the best he’s ever had and a truly historic one.
But not all people are happy about it.
Skip Strikes Again
Skip Bayless has always had something against James but he’s really had his knives out for King James recently.
Bayless recently said that James’ sensational, record-breaking season is nothing more than stat chasing and an attempt to secure glory by breaking records and not winning games.
LeBron continues chasing Kareem on a team that is now 24-24. He's turned into a Westbrick – a solo act of a stat machine. Defense optional. He's still an often sorry 3-pt shooter who takes way too many. But leading the league in scoring and passing Kareem are the priorities.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 26, 2022
Does Bayless have a point with his critique?
You could buy what he is selling if James was playing dumb basketball this year, only looking to score points.
However, that’s simply not the case.
All season long, we have seen him attempting to carry his team to a win.
He’s not going at it alone, either – he just happens to be far and away the best guy on his squad.
If he was simply chasing records, wouldn’t his average number of assists be low?
6.3 assists a game is a great stat and proof that he isn’t trying to make points for his own ego, but because he wants his team to be victorious.
It doesn’t matter what Bayless thinks; there is little doubt James will claim this record, just like he has claimed others.
No matter what he does, there will be some hating on James and ragging on him – it’s always been part of his career.
But no one can take away from the fact that he is constantly proving he’s one of the best to ever play the game.
NEXT: Grading Anthony Davis' Return To The Lakers