LOS ANGELES — With the Lakers heading to Sacramento this weekend and LeBron James needing fewer than 500 points to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time mark of 38,397 points, James reflected on the time he got his first NBA points at home of the USA scored kings.
“I knew I was ready for the moment,” James said in an exclusive interview with ESPN on Friday. “I knew I belonged in the biggest league in the world. But I didn’t know what to expect. And I was just super nervous. I didn’t know how my first bucket was going to turn out.”
Three minutes and four seconds into his first NBA game on October 29, 2003, James hit his first NBA shot – a one-dribbling pull-up jump shot 16 feet from the basket along the baseline.
“A difficult shot, actually,” James said. “But I was just so, so nervous with excitement. Nervous, I don’t want to fail. I don’t want to let people down.”
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James has only racked up achievements – and points – since then. He’s on his toes as he nears Abdul-Jabbar’s record, averaging 33.7 points on 57.8% shooting in his last 12 games, including 25 points in 10-of-19 shooting in the 130-114 win at Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks.
Not bad for a guy who’s been arguing for a long time that he’s not a scorer.
“I mean, I know how to put the ball in the hole,” James said. “When I say I’m not a goalscorer, in a way I’m saying that it was never the part of my game that defined me. … But there is an argument for it. If you look at how long that record has stood and the great Kareem that was able to pull off something like that.
“But it’s not my place to discuss it because I’ve never felt like this before.”
Abdul-Jabbar has held the torch as the league’s top scorer since April 5, 1984 – almost nine months to the day before James, who turned 38 last month, was born.
Unlike Abdul-Jabbar, whose signature skyhook is frozen in time as a bronze statue outside of Crypto.com Arena, James said picking a move from his offensive repertoire isn’t such an obvious choice.
“It’s not like I have a signature one-legged Dirk [Nowitzki] Fadeaway or a patented Michael Jordan fadeaway or a Kareem Skyhook or something [Hakeem Olajuwon] Dream Shake,” James said. “I think the only signature people are always talking about is my signature tomahawk dunk in transition.”
James is still playing over the edge as his career progresses, but his team is no longer playing anywhere near the top of the standings. LA has missed the playoffs in two of James’ four seasons with the Lakers and has an 18-21 record, 12th place in the Western Conference.
“I want to win. [The losing is] doesn’t sit well with me,” James said. “I don’t like having achievements and it doesn’t feel right when it comes with defeat. … So while we’re sitting here now as a franchise and as a sub-.500 team, we’ve been playing good basketball lately, but we want and I want to win at the highest level. Breaking records or setting records or overtaking greats with a loss has never been in my DNA.”
To illustrate his point, James explained how he chose to sit out the final five games of last season to rehabilitate an ankle injury after LA was already out of the postseason, rather than come back and play two more games just to have enough of having played season eligible to win the scoring title. James averaged 30 points per game in his 19th season.
“I’m out on the ground trying to score the goal Lakers' LeBron James talks pursuit of scoring record, staying great at 38 – ESPN In games that don’t matter, it felt so cheesy to me. So I thought I’m not going at all [to play]he said. “So that never mattered to me unless it was about winning.”
Though it’s been 10 years since he won the last of his four regular-season MVPs in 2013, James is still proud that opposing defenses are preparing to stop him as one of the best players in the league.
“Being able to go out and still be the focus of my opponent’s scouting reports lets me know I’m still playing at a high level,” he said. “I want to continue playing at a championship level and still be respected as a threat every time I touch the ground, no matter what minutes I’m playing.”
James has two years left on his contract with the Lakers. While he’s repeatedly expressed his hope that the Lakers can find a way to field a more competitive team around him for the twilight of his career, there’s another goal he puts above all else.
“I have to be grounded with my boy, I have to be grounded with Bronny,” James said of his eldest son, who is currently a senior in high school and won’t be allowed to play in the NBA until the 2024-25 season after the Rules of the current collective agreement.
James has expressed that desire before, saying how he hoped to be teammates with his son in the league. On Friday, however, he adjusted that stance slightly.
“Either in the same uniform or in a matchup against him. I don’t mean how [guarding one another all game] — because he’s a point guard and I’m a, at that point I’m going to play center or whatever the team needs me to do,” James said. “But I’d love to do the whole Ken Griffey Sr. and Junior thing. That would definitely be ideal.”
James said he and Bronny aren’t actively discussing this future possibility, but he knows it’s something his son is also interested in.
“I ask him what his ambitions are and he says he wants to play in the NBA,” James said. “Well, if he’s going to do it, he’s got to put in the work. I’m already here, so I’m just waiting for him.”
And then there will be another first NBA bucket that the James family is collectively getting nervous about.
James, referring to his total points in his career, said with a laugh: “He’s got a long way to go to get to me.”