John Salley is a four-time NBA champion who won titles with the Pistons, Bulls and Lakers. He has been teammates with some of the greatest players to ever play the game and when talking about one of those greats, he had an interesting theory.
Salley doesn’t believe LeBron James will eclipse Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark and become the NBA’s all-time regular season scoring leader. He started his theory with, “They’re not going to let him get it.”
He began telling the story of a conversation he had with former Lakers coach Phil Jackson when discussing Kobe Bryant’s legendary 81-point performance in 2006—second to only Wilt Chamberlain’s mark of 100. Salley said he asked Jackson why he pulled him out of the game and, according to him, Jackson said, “Some records need to stand.”
Salley appears to think that opposing players or perhaps even his coaching staff won’t let James pass Abdul-Jabbar. But frankly, that may be impossible. As of Wednesday morning, James has 37,281 career points and is 1,106 points short of the record. He’s currently averaging 24.3 points per game and there are 72 games left in the season. If he were to keep this pace, he would need about 46 more games to break the record.
If, by some reason, James doesn’t keep that pace or doesn’t play in enough games this year, he would without a doubt reach it next season. The 37-year-old has given no indication that he is retiring anytime soon and at this point his record-breaking night is more of a question of when not if.
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