By Dionysis Aravantinos / info@eurohoops.net
LeBron James scored 28 points in the Cleveland Cavaliers loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night and he joined an elite club. He became the youngest player to ever reach 30,000 points.
The 33-year old is averaging 27.1 points for his career and 26.8 for the 2017-2018 season. The question, however, is if LeBron James will break Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s scoring record and become the all-time scoring leader. Eurohoops breaks down the numbers and analyzes the ‘what if’s’ scenarios.
LeBron James has publicly stated that his retirement will be decided by his feelings about his sons and family growing up. He is currently 33 years of age and is playing in his 15th NBA season. If LeBron decides to play five more years, until 2023 when he will be 38, the chances are he could break Kareem’s record. LeBron will finish this season off will approximately 31,000 career points, 7,387 points behind Kareem. Kareem has scored 38,387 points so LeBron would need to average 70 games each year and score 22.0 points per game to reach 7,700 points in five years. In other words, if he manages to score 1,567 points each year for the next five season he would be able to break his record.
On the other hand, however, if the ‘King’ decides to play for three more years, he would need to average 82 games a season and score 32 points per game which is extremely difficult and unlikely. He would have to score 2,462 points a season. It will all come down to LeBron James’ wanting to play five more seasons as well as his health.
*The table below shows how many points a season LeBron James would need to score in order to pass Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points.
| Seasons | Points |
| 5 | 1,567 |
| 4 | 1,846 |
| 3 | 2,462 |
| 2 | 3,693 |
*The second table shows the points per contest he would have to score if we take into consideration that he will play 70 of the 82 games a year.
| Seasons | Points Per Game (70 games a year*) |
| 5 | 22.0 |
| 4 | 26.4 |
| 3 | 35.1 |
| 2 | 52.7 |