How Many Points Does LeBron James Need To Catch Kareem Abdul ...

LeBron James is heading into his fifth season with the Los Angeles Lakers with two clear objectives: The first is collective - reaching at least the playoffs after a season the franchise would prefer to forget after finishing 11th in the Western Conference, their poorest record in recent years with a balance of 33 wins and 49 losses. In his 19 years in the NBA, LeBron has missed out on the playoffs just four times: in his first two seasons at Cleveland and in two of his four to date in California.

The second is of the legend category: to further embellish a record with four rings and four MVPs, and to go down in history by chasing down Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the top of the NBA’s all-time leading scorers’ list .

LeBron’s numbers

After 1,366 regular season games, LeBron has a total of 37,062 points (27.1 average) over 19 seasons, 1,325 fewer than those accumulated by NBA legend Abdul-Jabbar in 1,560 games over 20 seasons (38,387 total; 24.6 average) with the Milwaukee Bucks (6) and the Los Angeles Lakers (14).

The numbers are clear: if LeBron plays in all 82 games of the season and maintains his 27.1 average, he will clock up 2,222 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar. Over 70 games he would still manage it (1,897). Even if he plays only 50 he’ll scrape past with 1,355.

If his averages were to drop, he would also have the number one spot within reach. If he only scored 18.9 points on average, he would require 70 games (1,323). At an average of 22.1, he would have to play 60 times.

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In his four years with the Lakers, LeBron’s scoring has only dropped by one tenth (27) with 6,024 points overall, despite only participating in 55 games per season on average. Last season, for example, he reached 1,695 points in 56 games.

Lakers renewal

That’s not bad for a player who is nearly 38 years old and in the final year of his contract with the Lakers. Negotiations to extend his relationship with the Los Angeles franchise, according to ESPN, are on the right track and could be tied up with a deal worth $97.1 million dollars for another couple of seasons.