Tonight’s February 7th Lakers game against the Oklahoma City Thunder is going to be one people remember forever. The team fell short to OKC, 133-130. But 39 years after the fact, LeBron James is the one to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NBA’s All-Time Scoring List. At 9:01pm tonight, he became the King of Scoring.
“I would never ever in a million years have dreamt this better. F—, man,” LBJ said at center court.
LeBron started the night 36 points away from the record, that’s just nine points a quarter he needed give or take. This is how the historic night unfolded:
Quarter One: 36 Point
The King tipped off his historic night with two points off a drive to the hoop. He then had a corner three, one-made foul shot, and four more points off drives to the basket. The Lakers trailed by two at the end of the quarter, 36-34, thanks to OKC’s urgency from three.
Quarter Two: 28 Points Away
The second quarter started off with two and-1 buckets from LBJ, one left-handed and one right-handed. He then took his offense to the arc and sunk another three, his second of the game. The Thunder’s been having a hard time protecting their rim and Bron just keeps drawing fouls off the guy’s down low. He notched three points from the charity stripe capping off the half with 20 points and 16 to go.
Quarter 3: 16 Points Away
James tallied two more points from the line after being fouled on a breakaway to the basket. But then— back-to-back triples brought the entire arena to their feet and MVP chants bounced off the walls. It was hard to hear Lawrence Tanter call the shots. Three layups brought LeBron within two points of making history with 1:06 to go in the third. It felt like time stood still for ten minutes.
The clock was counting down from 10.9 seconds. Bron was at the top of the key with his back to the hoop. He moved to the other side of the post, turned around, and tossed up a fadeaway jumper. The King of Scoring was crowned.
He stood there with his hands on his knees, staring at the hardwood in disbelief at what had been done. As he rose, his arms lifted straight above his head as an ocean of media engulfed him. He waved them closer and closer, his mom Gloria; wife, Savannah; daughter, Zhuri; sons, Bryce and Bronny; and good friend, Dwyane Wade, among the flashing cameras striking from every angle.
Then the tide parted. NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver and Basketball Legend and LeBron’s point predecessor Kareem walked to center court. Cap passed LeBron a basketball, a proverbial passing of the torch.
“Well, ya, because my boys leave on the red eye tomorrow night,” LeBron said on how he knew tonight was going to be the night.
Quarter 4: And Still Counting
When the game resumed the Lakers were down 104-99 heading into the final frame. The fourth resulted in a battle to which the Lakers couldn’t come out on top. Twenty-one Lakers’ turnovers and their defense cost them the game on this Historic night. But LeBron did secure two more points, putting the record breaker at 38,390 points in his career… and counting.
“I write the ‘man in the arena’ on my shoe every night, Theodore Roosevelt. And tonight, I actually felt like I was the man on top of the arena,” the Kid from Akron declared.
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