Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time NBA leading scorer, which led to Tuesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder being paused for an on-court celebration that featured several congratulatory messages.
Those also poured in on social media, with Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Magic Johnson and Mookie Betts among those to share their thoughts.
Johnson played with Abdul-Jabbar on the Showtime Lakers, and remarked that he never believed there would be a new NBA scoring leader.
Betts referred to James breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record as “huge.”
King James.
Congratulations @KingJames on becoming the NBA's all-time leading scorer! #ScoringKing pic.twitter.com/7NBgN0BVxU
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 8, 2023
“You already know how big that is,” Betts added. “Especially for a pass-first guy.But for you to get this scoring title is huge. Like I said, I want to congratulate you on all the success and thank you for laying out the blueprint for all the rest of us.”
Betts’ message wasn’t the first time he and James were loosely tied together. In 2020, James congratulated Betts, Cody Bellinger and the Dodgers on winning the world Series.
A few months later, Betts expressed his interest in joining James in a potential bid to purchase the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA. Then in 2022, Betts said he agreed with James that the Dodgers, Lakers and Rams should host a joint championship parade.
Unfortunately for James and the Lakers, his historic night was accompanied by a costly loss to the Thunder. The Lakers fell to two games back of the Utah Jazz for a spot in the play-in game.
LeBron James reaches 38,388 points
LeBron went into Tuesday’s matchup against the Thunder needing 36 points to overtake Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA scoring record. He reached the top of the all-time scoring list late in the third quarter on a fadeaway jumper.
James oddly only took two shots after that point, making one of them, in the Lakers’ 133-130 loss at crypto.com Arena.
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