When and the place will LeBron cross Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because the NBA’s all-time main scorer?

The 2022-23 NBA Season has been plagued by overarching storylines.

Will Nikola Jokic grow to be simply the fourth participant in NBA historical past to win three straight MVPs?

Will the Golden State Warriors overcome preseason turmoil to win their second straight NBA title?

Who will win the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes?

Chief amongst all these narratives has been the query of whether or not or not the sport’s biggest participant ever (perhaps?) will break essentially the most sacred report within the sport.

With solely 283 factors sitting between LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and 37 Los Angeles Laker video games left on the season, the query is not a matter of will he do it, however quite, when and the place will he break the scoring report.

To try to determine this out, we’re going to wish to do some ~ math.

On the season, The King is averaging 29.8 PPG. If he continues that common, he’ll surpass Abdul-Jabaar in roughly 9.5 video games. So, it might be in the course of the Lakers’ Feb. 7 conflict with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.

Chances are high, although, with the best way James has been taking part in of late, it might even come prior to that. Throughout the month of January (7 video games), James has been averaging 34.9 factors per contest. If he continues to attain at that fee, he’ll grow to be the all-time main scorer 8.1 video games from now, which might imply he would break the report early in his workforce’s street matchup towards the New Orleans Pelicans on Feb. 4.

(Sidebar: hopefully, Zion Williamson is wholesome for that sport as a result of it might make for a very cool story to see one generational expertise break the all-time scoring report in entrance of one other one.)

However wait, our projections are failing to account for one essential variable — well being. Up to now, James has solely participated in 35 of the workforce’s 45 video games (77.8%), which means he’s lacking roughly two out of each 10 video games.

If that harm pattern continues whereas he’s scoring on the 29.8 PPG tempo, he’ll break the report on the street towards the Golden State Warriors on Feb. 23. If he’s on the 34.9 PPG scoring clip, he would be the proprietor of the best report in basketball by the top of the Lakers’ dwelling sport towards the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9.

If you happen to ask me, that’s most likely the best-case situation. James can be at dwelling, taking part in towards the participant many view as the present greatest participant on the planet, Giannis Antetounkmpo, taking part in for the workforce Abdul-Jabbar set the scoring report with, towards the workforce he scored 14,211 of his 38,387 profession factors for.

No matter what the storyline is, James is coming for Abdul-Jabaar’s throne. And primarily based on our projections, it seems like it will likely be all his comparatively quickly.

To observe James’ persevering with pursuit of the scoring title in actual time, go to our scoring tracker over on the Silver Display and Roll.