LeBron James' assault on the NBA record books and other likely milestones this season
Our discouraging reintroduction to the Los Angeles Lakers, who missed the play-in tournament last season and looked no better in Tuesday's opener, may well mean the highlight of their 2022-23 campaign is LeBron James' pursuit of the career scoring record Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set in 1984 and lifted to 38,387 points.
James currently trails Abdul-Jabbar's NBA record by 1,294 points. The 37-year-old eclipsed that number last season on March 3, so Lakers fans must hope their favorite team gives them better reasons to watch in the meantime. At the very least, James could reach several other milestones before catching Abdul-Jabbar.
In fact, James already hit one in the season opener. His three 3-pointers on Tuesday tied him with Paul Pierce's 2,143 for 10th place in league history, just one behind Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.
James trails another Lakers great, Magic Johnson, by just 88 assists for sixth place on the career assists list. That could fall a dozen games from now. The 18-time All-Star's output over the last two seasons, when he missed one-third of his games, would also move him past Mark Jackson and Steve Nash on that ledger, too, launching him into fourth place in NBA history, behind only Chris Paul, Jason Kidd and John Stockton.
James already established the club for 35,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists last season. In a pre-LeBron basketball world, we could never have imagined a player who would finish his career with more points than Abdul-Jabbar, more assists than Nash and more rebounds than David Robinson, much less one who would do so while still performing at an All-NBA level — and yet James could achieve that this season.
It helps that James has remained healthy enough to play 1,367 career regular-season games. Twenty-five more will match Tim Duncan for 10th place on the all-time list. He can climb as high as eighth with another 58-game season, and even then he will have played 136 fewer regular-season games than Abdul-Jabbar.
James may be the headliner of this season's assault on the NBA record books, but he is hardly the only player climbing the statistical leaderboards. Here are the milestones that could be met before the playoffs.
Points
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, whose 25,526 career points rank 21st in league history, can crack the top 10 in scoring by season's end. He trails current 10th-placeholder Moses Malone by 1,883 points. Durant has hit that mark in six of his 14 seasons and scored 1,643 points in just 55 games for the Nets last season.
Other career scoring milestones to watch:
Carmelo Anthony, who remains a free agent at age 38, is ninth on the all-time scoring list. He could pass Shaquille O'Neal for eighth place with 308 more points, if only some team were willing to sign him.
James Harden entered this season needing 1,523 points to join the 23-man 25,000-point club. Harden has an outside shot of cracking the top 20 if he reverts to the player he was prior to the last two years.
DeMar DeRozan will become the 50th player ever to reach 20,000 points with only 94 more — three games of work, if he keeps pace with the 37 points he scored on opening night. (Keep in mind, every eligible player who has scored more than Tom Chambers' 20,049 career points is in the Hall of Fame.)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, in just his 10th season, headlines a host of players who could join the 15,000-point club, which currently includes fewer than 150 players in league history. The list of others who could punch their ticket to 15,000 points features Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal.
Assists
Russell Westbrook needs 353 more assists to pass Gary Payton for 10th on the all-time assists list. He has logged more dimes in all but one of his 14 seasons — 2013-14, when knee surgery cost him 36 games.
Rebounds
Dwight Howard also remains unsigned as the 2022-23 campaign begins. He eclipsed Nate Thurmond last season for 10th place on the career rebounds list. His 356 rebounds last year were his lowest of any healthy season in his 18-year career. Reaching that figure again would leapfrog Howard over Kevin Garnett, Robert Parish and Karl Malone into seventh all-time, in the neighborhood of 15,000 career rebounds. That club features only Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and Tim Duncan.
Steals
Chris Paul is 59 steals shy of Michael Jordan for third on the NBA's all-time list. Only Stockton and Kidd have more than Jordan's 2,514. Paul has swiped more than 90 steals in every season of his 17-year career.
LeBron is currently 10th on that list. He has averaged 68 steals over his past four seasons. That figure would move him ahead of Hakeem Olajuwon and just three steals shy of Clyde Drexler for eighth place. And, yes, that means James could be fourth in assists and eighth in steals by season's end — as a forward.
3-pointers
Damian Lillard's lone 3-pointer on Wednesday kept LeBron in his rearview by a single 3 on the NBA's all-time list. Lillard averaged 228 3-pointers per season for his first nine years in the league, before last year's abdominal injury limited him to 29 games. If Lillard reverts to pre-surgery form, he will pass Jamal Crawford, Jason Terry and Vince Carter and move into sixth all-time, so long as James does not chase him down.
Klay Thompson, after two-plus season on the shelf, continues his climb up the 3-point ladder. His 1,914 3-pointers rank 18th. If he makes 200 or more 3-pointers for the eighth time in 11 seasons, he will surpass Pierce and threaten to edge Crawford out of the top 10, assuming James and Lillard also eclipse Crawford.
Triple-doubles
Luka Doncic, in a wild development that reflects a rising statistical tide, trails Larry Bird by 13 triple-doubles for ninth on the league's historical list. Doncic recorded 10 triple-doubles to finish last season with 46 through his first five years — almost as many as the combined total of Jordan (28) and Kobe Bryant (21).
Doncic is still 30 behind two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, who needs just three more triple-doubles to surpass Wilt Chamberlain's official career total of 78 (before the league logged blocks and steals). The only others with more career triple-doubles: Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, Magic, Kidd and — yes — LeBron.
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
