It’s rare that you get to write about or witness a major all-time scoring milestone in the NBA. Indeed, LeBron James is in rare territory. On Saturday night, James surpassed Bryant’s career total of 33,643 points to move into third place all-time on the scoring behind just Karl Malone and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar.
The milestone came with James needing 18 points against the Philadelphia 76ers. While the Lakers lost the game, James surpassed the 18 points he needed with a layup in the fourth quarter.
17 years in the making 👑@KingJames passes Kobe for 3rd on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list! pic.twitter.com/vSleBDGChQ
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 26, 2020
Following the game, James spoke to the media about when he was a kid and Bryant ironically gave him a pair of sneakers. There are some ironic ties in the story and where he passed Bryant.
“It’s just too much. It’s too much. The story is too much. It doesn’t make sense. Just to make a long story short, now I’m here in a Lakers uniform, in Philadelphia, where he’s from. The first time I ever met him, gave me his shoes on All-Star Weekend. It’s surreal. It doesn’t make no sense, but the universe just puts things in your life. And I guess when you live in the right way, when you just give it everything to whatever you’re doing, things happen organically.”
James continued, almost in disbelief.
“And it’s not supposed to make sense, but it just happens. And I’m happy just to be in any conversation with Kobe Bean Bryant, one of the all-time greatest basketball players to ever play, one of the all-time greatest Lakers. The man has two jerseys hanging up in Staples Center. It’s just crazy.”
Furthermore, here is the historic bucket. It serves as part of history captured forever right here.
With this bucket, @KingJames moved into 3rd on the all-time SCORING list! #PhantomCam pic.twitter.com/AOsrsYDi7R
— NBA (@NBA) January 26, 2020
Finally, this whole thing sparks a nice debate. Who was the better all-around player between James and Bryant? Recently, Michael Jordan was asked to compare himself with James as a player and he sort of talked off the point.
Surely, James and Bryant used different skills sets to score all those points. But it’s fun to talk about who is the better talent on the hardwood and why. Again, it’s debates like this one that will forever make the NBA a great sport. And there is no right or wrong answer.
