If you thought LeBron James had accomplished everything he could accomplish in basketball by surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the top scorer in NBA history, think again. This season, King James has the possibility of breaking an impressive new record, that of becoming the best scorer of all time in basketball.
This record is currently held by Brazilian Oscar Schmidt, considered one of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA. Schmidt sits first in scoring with a total of 49,737 points after a career of 29 seasons, from 1974 to 2003. James is second with 47,734 points. The ranking includes points obtained in leagues, but also at international level.
LeBron James is inching closer to another history-making feat ????
Oscar Schmidt, one of the greatest players to never play in the NBA, scored 49,737 points in his entire career.
LeBron is at 47,734 points, which includes the regular season, playoffs and international… pic.twitter.com/C8hQ9PFY05
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 20, 2023
Last season, LeBron James averaged 28.9 points per game. If James manages to maintain this pace, he will need 70 games to close the gap of 2,003 points and surpass Schmidt’s legendary mark.
Although Schmidt never played in the NBA, he was nevertheless selected 131st overall, in the 6th round, by the New Jersey Nets in the 1984 draft. As a reminder, it was not until 1988 that the NBA limited its draft to three rounds before further reducing it to the two-round format we know today, in 1989.
Aged 26 at the time, Schmidt, nicknamed Holy Hand – the Holy Hand in Portuguese -, skips the NBA in order to continue playing for the Brazilian national team. Before 1989, NBA players were not eligible to represent their national team’s colors. He admitted in 2020 that he then considered his late selection as an insult.
Such is Schmidt’s dominance, that he is considered one of the main reasons for the creation of the Dream Team American for the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. Playing in the Italian league in the early 1990s, he rubbed shoulders with Joe Bryant and his son, a certain Kobe. He often mentioned that he had taken Schmidt as a model in the construction of his game and that he considered him a true living legend.
If Schmidt’s record is in James’ horizon, he probably doesn’t make it an absolute goal. The priority will instead be to help the Lakers win the NBA championship. In this case, it would be James’ fifth and would therefore equal the total number of titles obtained by Kobe Bryant, which could help King James to settle, alongside him, among the greatest Lakers of all time.
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2023-09-21 14:58:37
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