LOS ANGELES – LeBron James passed Wilt Chamberlain — another all-time great who joined the Los Angeles Lakers in the latter stages of his career — for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list Thursday against the Portland Trail Blazers.
James tied Chamberlain on an and-1 runner with 3:55 remaining in the fourth quarter and passed him on the ensuing free throw. James finished the game with 44 points — the most by a Laker since Kobe Bryant scored 60 in his career finale — and now has 31,425 points for his career. He added 10 rebounds and nine assists in Los Angeles’ 126-117 win.
Next up is James’ childhood hero, Michael Jordan, in fourth with 32,292 points. If James maintains his season scoring average of 26.4 points per game and doesn’t miss any games because of rest or injury, he should pass Jordan in late January.
While James removed Chamberlain from the top five list, the game’s best point producers, other than Jordan, have ties to the purple and gold. The top three scorers in league history all played for the Lakers at some point in their careers. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points) is first, Karl Malone (36,928 points) is second and Kobe Bryant (33,643 points) is third.
“Well, it’s part of what makes working for the Lakers so amazing,” said Lakers coach Luke Walton when asked about James passing Chamberlain. “You have this history here. … For him to be up there speaks more to what he’s done over his entire career, obviously, as a player. The fact that he’s in a Laker jersey as he does anything more just adds to the legacy of what the Lakers are.”
Walton then shared an anecdote illustrating the dominance of the man known as The Big Dipper.
“I’ve heard great Wilt stories from being around the Laker organization, including where in practice he would just take the ball and put it in the paint because he said, ‘That’s an automatic 2 points, so I’m not going to waste my energy jumping if I get it in the paint,'” Walton said with a smirk. “So there’s some good Wilt stories around the halls of the Lakers. But just one of the all-time dominant players our game has ever seen.”