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NBA players erupt as LeBron James breaks all-time scoring record

LeBron James Lakers

LeBron James is now the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, as he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Tuesday night when the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Across Twitter, the NBA community gave James his flowers for one of the greatest individual accomplishments in sports history.

James ascended to the record near the end of the third quarter when he hit a fadeaway jumper to give him 36 points on the night. The game was paused, as NBA commissioner Adam Silver congratulated him on the accomplishment, while Abdul-Jabbar came out to center court to acknowledge the 20-year veteran.

It is yet another notch on the belt of James, who has added to his already impressive resume, one that includes four NBA championships, four regular season MVPs, four NBA Finals MVPs, one scoring title and one assist title.

When he decides to call it quits, the Akron, Ohio native will likely be most associated with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team he spent 11 seasons with during two different stints, but he has definitely left his mark on the Lakers.

When he arrived in Los Angeles in 2018, they were in the midst of a very painful rebuilding process that had seen them miss the playoffs for five consecutive years. After a frustrating maiden voyage with the Lakers, James led them to their 17th world title in 2020 with the help of the newly arrived Anthony Davis.

It has been a struggle for the Purple and Gold ever since, partly due to injuries to both James and Davis, but the 38-year-old has maintained an incredible level of play despite all the wear and tear on his body.

He finished the game with 38 points, and he was averaging 30.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game coming into Tuesday.

The downer is that the Lakers lost another contest, and they did so because of their recent bugaboo: the defensive end. They gave up 76 points in the first half and fell 133-130, despite a desperate push in the final seconds of the fourth quarter.