“Fxxk, man, thank you guys.”
A tall man standing in the middle of the court wearing a bright yellow uniform, white hair band, and pink basketball shoes continued to speak, then took a breath. Fans who filled the 19,000-seat stadium responded with applause.
The history of the National Basketball Association (NBA) has been rewritten. The record for most goals scored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who retired in 1989, was broken after 33 years. It was ‘King’ LeBron James (39, Los Angeles Lakers) who held the pen.
James scored 38 points in a home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles (LA) on the 8th (Korean time). With this, his regular season career points totaled 38,390 points, the most in NBA history. Abdul-Jabbar’s previous record was 38,387 points.
The attention of 메이저놀이터basketball fans around the world was focused on the game as James reduced the number of points left before breaking the record to 36 points. Ticket prices skyrocketed. The price of a seat next to the court exceeded 90 million won. James’s family as well as Lakers legend Magic Johnson, existing record holder Abdul-Jabbar, and rapper Jay-Z visited the stadium.
James, who scored 20 points in the first half alone, increased the pace in the third quarter. After taking a breather on the bench with 6 points left to his record, he returned to the court with 2 minutes and 14 seconds left in the quarter. Soon after, he chased Abdul-Jabbar by just one point with alley-oops and lay-ups in a row.
At the end of the quarter, the Lakers’ last offensive opportunity was in James’ hands. After catching the ball from inside the 3-point line, he turned his back on Kenrich Williams and suddenly turned softly and threw a fadeaway shot. The ball left his hand and was sucked into the rim as shown in the picture. It was the 38,388th point in his personal career.
After confirming the score, James slowly walked forward with his arms raised. The game was stopped, and the caption ‘NBA All-time Highest Scorer’ was displayed on the screen. James, who shared the joy of hugging his family and colleagues, soon took over the basketball from Abdul-Jabbar. He said, “I came this far thanks to the passion and sacrifice of many people,” and was thrilled, saying, “Even after a million years, there will be no better night than this.”
Born in Akron, Ohio, in 1984, James was raised by a single mother. He overcame his poor environment with one skill and was evaluated as the best prospect of all time since high school. He won the regular season and final MVP four times each, and broke the youngest record in career scoring each time.
The remaining goal for him, who has risen to the top scorer, is an unanswered goal of 40,000 points in his career. Considering his ability to score 30 points per game, he is said to be able to achieve it.
Apart from the inclination to achieve a great record, the Lakers dedicated their defeat to Oklahoma City that day. While the Lakers failed to block the perimeter attack properly, Oklahoma City refused to stand as a bridesmaid at James’ coronation ceremony, cutting off loose passes in every game.