Earlier this year, LeBron James made history by passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most regular season and playoff points scored in a career. While James still has a ways to go before he takes the official scoring crown away from Abdul-Jabbar — that only takes regular season numbers into account — he can officially say no one has scored more points in an NBA career.
James is going to continue running up the score on the rest of the list for a while and is almost certainly going to retire with a lead so wide that it may never be caught. The Los Angeles Lakers star was asked about this on a recent episode of The Shop, where he articulated that he doesn’t like that his name usually doesn’t come up in conversations about the best scorers in league history.
“The crazy thing is, I’m not, like, a natural scorer,” James said at the 18:12 mark of the above video. “I love getting my guys involved, I’ve always been that way. I’ve always … the point of seeing my team mate succeed off my pass, I’ve always been that type of guy. And to sit at the top of the food chain in the most points scored in the history of the game is like, it’s weird to me. They don’t ever call me … when they talk about the best scorers of all time, they never mention my name.”
When asked by Maverick Carter if that pisses him off, James said it does.
“They don’t ever bring my name into it,” James said. After Carter said that he wouldn’t mention James among the best scorers of all time, James lovingly prodded him, calling him “an asshole” and a “LeBron hater” with a laugh.
The funny thing is, James has said in the past that his preference is to not be labeled a scorer. Here’s a clip of him from back in 2017 when he was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
LeBron on nearing MJ for most playoff points: "I'm not a scorer. I don't want to be labeled as a scorer. I'm a playmaker." pic.twitter.com/wKNenPEb5t
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) May 25, 2017
“I’m not a scorer, I don’t want to be labeled as a scorer,” James said back then. “I can put the ball in the hoop, but I’m a playmaker, I’m a player. Put me on the court and I’ll find ways to be successful. When you talk about scorers, you have a lot of great scorers in our league, all time, guys who shot a lot of shots and volume shooters and scored the ball at a high clip. I’m not one of those guys. I’m a guy who’s always got happy and excited seeing my team [be] successful.”
It seems pretty safe to say that as the years have gone on and James has earned a place among the greatest scorers in history, he’s become far more open to hearing his name brought up among the best scorers to ever play the game.
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