LeBron James is only 25 points away from being the seventh player in NBA history to crack 30,000 career points in the Regular Season. However, he played down the significance of this on Thursday.
“I’m not the kind of guy who primarily wants to score a lot of points,”James said to USA Today,”I’m trying to dominate my whole career in all aspects – rebounds, assists, defense – and I’m sprinkling in a bit of scoring. If you want to classify me as a player, don’t use the word’ scorer’ first.”
James scored 16 points against Orlando on Thursday, so there are now only 25 for the 30,000 points – he will be given the next opportunity on Saturday evening in the game against OKC Thunder (21.30 on DAZN))”I know I’m close, but I don’t know the exact numbers. To be honest, that’s not an issue I’m losing sleep over,”James said before the Orlando game.
Even though James doesn’t define himself as a scorer, he is already in seventh place in all-time scoring and has a realistic chance of one day overtaking even the top-ranked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar if he continues to play at a comparable level for a few more years. Only Dirk Nowitzki (30,808), Wilt Chamberlain (31,419), Michael Jordan (32,292), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Karl Malone (36,928) and Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) stand in front of James.
“That wasn’t one of my goals when I entered the league,”said James,”but I definitely saw the list and I know who else played in the NBA and didn’t get that far. It’s a very select group. In that respect, it is something special. But I never thought of setting any scoring records.”
When I walk into the 30,000 point club, everyone will look at me and ask,”What are you doing here? I don’t belong in this club,”grinned James.
James admitted that it would be “pretty cool” if he broke the milestone on Saturday, as his family could be in the hall. He added, however, that his successes do not interest his children in the least.