This is the season LeBron James will almost certainly pass Michael Jordan. In one very significant way.
The man considered the greatest scorer ever will slip down yet another spot on the all-time points pantheon, this time reigned in by another Number 23.
At LeBron’s career scoring average – 27.2 ppg – he will eclipse Jordan’s regular season scoring numbers in 46 games.
If he scores 27.9 points a game he will break the record in game number 45 – against the Chicago Bulls on January 16th.
You can only imagine the hype around that game if he’s close to the record.
Reaching Even Higher
LeBron is currently number seven on the all-time list and will likely pass Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain before catching Jordan.
Once that’s done there will only be three more names to eclipse.
Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
On current pace he will move passed Kobe early in the 2019-20 season.
It gets a little harder after that.
If he were to play all 82 games and maintain that 27.2 scoring average he would pass Malone about halfway through the 2020-21 season.
To make it to the summit and overtake Abdul-Jabbar he’d have to keep that up about a third into his 2021-22 campaign.
Reaching the number one spot in scoring may be out of his reach, but he may not need to get there to attain GOAT status. Passing Jordan in scoring, and tying his mark in MVP trophies (five) this season, will add voice to the army who already have him as the greatest of all time. We watch and wait.
Records Recently Broken
James has been making a habit of overtaking Jordan’s statistical achievements. Last season he passed him for most consecutive games scoring in double digits, with his 867th straight game of 10+ points. He’s also now ahead of Jordan in playoff scoring – number one overall in that category.
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