“This season should be a celebration of LeBron’s individual greatness”- Former NBA star asks people to stop talking about LeBron James’ deficiencies as he closes in on scoring record
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers looked out-matched during their opening game against the defending NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors. Former NBA shooting guard JJ Reddick believes the narrative should focus just on LeBron James' individual greatness. This is especially true as James looks to finally overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's long-standing record this season.
LeBron James watched his longtime rival Stephen Curry win a fourth NBA ring. Then, the latter went on to dominate the game as the Golden State Warriors ran riot on the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers' glaring deficiencies were highlighted in their opening game as the Warriors never looked in trouble throughout their entire matchup.
The Lakers clearly don't have three-point shooting and two-way wings on their roster. Both these aspects are arguably the most important components of a title-winning squad in modern basketball. As such, expectations about the Lakers have started to reduce, and the saving grace for the season will turn out to be about LeBron James' pursuit of the NBA's all-time regular season scoring record.
On ESPN's 'First Take,' popular NBA analyst and former Duke basketball star JJ Reddick stated the following about LeBron James and the Lakers' current season:
"We should treat the Lakers season as a celebration of LeBron's individual greatness... Spending all day everyday talking about their deficiencies, that's not great."
Is LeBron James' scoring record taking precedence over LA Lakers’ season?
The NBA's all-time leading regular season scoring title always looked like an unbreakable record. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the current record holder, played in the league for 20 years and amassed a whooping 38,387 points. With such crazy longevity and consistent scoring prowess, Abdul-Jabbar's record always looked unbreakable.
No NBA superstar ever came close to this record until LeBron James slowly and steadily started accumulating points throughout his illustrious career. James, arguably the greatest basketball player, is finally within touching distance of Abdul-Jabbar's scoring numbers, a feat that no basketball fan ever imagined would happen.
But we, as a basketball community, might be very fortunate to witness this monumentous accomplishment as James is only 1,294 points behind Abdul-Jabbar. James has reached this point total every season except for the pandemic shortened season.
With the Lakers continuing to disappoint and their roster looking like a huge mess, the focus for the season might solely be on James' chase to topple his fellow Laker great.
The Los Angeles Lakers messed up their roster after they elected to trade away the rotation depth of Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell to acquire Russell Westbrook. Additionally, GM Rob Pelinka also refused to re-sign Alex Caruso. The Lakers, since then, have been trying to revamp their roster but clearly don't have enough to challenge for the title right now.
The Lakers do not have enough effective pieces on their roster to compete for the championship. Meanwhile, James is nearing the end of a seamlessly never-ending prime. Therefore, the only real story surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers will be James' final sprint to overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer in NBA regular season history.