Reflecting on LeBron James’ immense journey in the NBA – which seems far from over when you see his level this season – is not the same as admiring the stratospheric performance of a pure scorer. It would be simplistic to sum it up to that. “All around player” par excellence, “The Chosen One” has always multiplied on a parquet floor. In the 10 best interceptors in NBA history, the former star of Cleveland or Miami, who has 7.5 career rebounds, has blackened the statistics sheets as rarely year after year.
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This points record was never one of my goals
He is thus not in the same vein as his prestigious acolytes who occupy the first places in the ranking of the best scorers in the NBA. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2nd with 38,387 points), Karl Malone (3rd with 36,928), Kobe Bryant (4th with 33,643) and Michael Jordan (5th with 32,292) had more “scoring” in their blood. If they were obviously not limited to that on slats too – Abdul-Jabbar, for example, accumulated rebounds and counterattacks while Michael Jordan was an exceptional defender and ended his career with an average of 5.3 assists -, feeding the scoreboard was their primary goal when their team was on offense. It was never an obsession with LeBron James.
In his eyes, it is moreover his “altruism” and his ability to make others play that define him best. “This points record was never one of my goals when I arrived in the League. ‘Cause I’ve always been a pass-first player“, launched the native of Akron on ESPN a few weeks ago. “When I say I’m not a scorer, I mean it that way: it’s never been the part of my game that defines me. I have always liked to see my teammates shiner”.
Don’t think it’s a fad of the moment to show off as he breaks a memorable record, LeBron James “sees” himself that way for a long time. “Even if my coach asked me to be more selfish and try to take control of the game more, I couldn’t do it. It’s not my game. I like to pass the ball “, had warned the young LeBron James in the New York Times, when he was 17 years old and already panicked the planet basketball for his precocious talent.
Anthony Davis’ tribute: ‘He really wants to involve the other players’
Some will however see a little hypocrisy on his part. We are still talking about a player who only finished one season with an average of less than 25 points over his 20 years in the NBA – that of his rookie season (20.9 pts). From a player especially who attempts 19.7 shots on average per game throughout his career, more than Kobe Bryant (19.5), Kevin Durant (18.7) or Stephen Curry (17.7) for example . Nevertheless, the leader of the Lakers with a high basketball IQ, who has a career average of 7.3 assists, remains a player who has always made his teammates play.
It is therefore no coincidence that he is ranked fourth among the best “All-time” passers in the NBA behind John Stockton, Jason Kidd and Chris Paul. As a symbol, he is also the only one in the Top 10 not to be a playmaker… Criticized at the start of his tenure in Miami for tending to seek the best option instead of assuming his responsibilities by taking the last shooting in hot times, King James felt himself to be “a player who is not selfish. Sometimes too much.” His four championship titles or his 10 trips to the NBA finals remind us, however, that this remains a relative problem in his CV.
“He really wants to involve the other players, he doesn’t take many shots unless he has to. (…) Seeing that he really cares about his teammates and wants everyone to be better around him is something that definitely surprised me. This is what surprised me the most: to see how selfless he is“, summarized Anthony Davis at the end of 2019. And again, this is not necessarily the description that one could have imagined of a player at the top of the ranking of the best scorers in NBA history.
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