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 1,017 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar’s career total of 38,387.
At his career scoring average of 27.1 PPG, James would need 38 games to rack up that total, putting him on track to break the record on Feb. 9 against the Milwaukee Bucks. James has missed six games this season, and if he continues to miss games at the same rate he did last season, the record-breaking game would come March 12, against the New York Knicks. Through 12 games this season, James is averaging 25.8 PPG, leaving him slightly behind his career pace.
We’ll have ongoing coverage of LeBron’s quest, including updated game-by-game projections and complete stats, throughout the season.