Skip to main content
SI

10 Things LeBron James Is Chasing in His 24th NBA Season

LeBron has done it all over his first 23 seasons. But believe it or not, there’s more to accomplish.
James enters his first season with the 76ers after spending the last eight years in Los Angeles.
James enters his first season with the 76ers after spending the last eight years in Los Angeles. | Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

LeBron James accomplished just about everything he possibly could in his first 23 seasons in the NBA. In a few weeks, he’ll be back for Season 24 donning some new colors in Philadelphia

James is the NBA’s all-time leader in games and minutes played as well as points scored—in both the regular season and playoffs. He is a four-time NBA champion and four-time MVP with a record 13 All-NBA first team selections. Heck, LeBron raised three kids and has already tossed one of them an alley-oop in an NBA game

So what more is there to accomplish for the King, really? It turns out: A lot. Here’s a list of 10 stats and accomplishments he’s chasing this season with the 76ers:

1. Pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most regular-season wins in NBA history

James has celebrated 1,048 regular-season wins over his career. He’s just 27 wins away from taking the NBA’s all-time record away from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won 1,074 games over 20 seasons with the Lakers and Bucks. Unless this season goes tragically wrong in Philadelphia, LeBron will get there with ease. 

2. Play against his 1,900th different NBA player 

According to Basketball Reference, James has competed against 1,857 different NBA players over his first 23 seasons. Considering that roughly 5,000 athletes have suited up in an NBA game, that number is approaching 40% of the players in league history. That’s outrageous. Later this year, James’s list of career opponents will gain 19-year-old AJ Dybantsa, the top pick in the 2026 draft who was born in the middle of James’s fourth NBA season. Dybantsa was about six months old when James played in his first NBA Finals game. On the flip side of that career opponents list is longtime journeyman Kevin Willis, who was 42 when James debuted and is now 63 years old.

If you’re curious, James has played the most games over his career against Andre Iguodala and Al Horford—70 apiece (including regular season and playoffs). That’s almost a full season. 

3. Pass Chris Paul for second place on the all-time assists leaderboard

Last season, James became the fourth player in NBA history to tally over 12,000 assists in a career. He’s just 76 assists away from passing up Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd for third place on the all-time leaderboard, something he should accomplish by mid-November. James needs a rather bold 536 assists to surpass Chris Paul (12,551 career assists) for second place, but he did tally more than that in both 2023-24 and 2024-25 with the Lakers. 

4. Win his fifth career NBA championship 

As even the most casual NBA fans know, James has won four rings over his career—2012 and ’14 with the Heat, ’16 with the Cavs and ’20 with the Lakers. Forty-four other NBA players can boast the same. If he wins a fifth NBA title this year with the 76ers, he’d join a list of 27 other players in NBA history with at least five rings.

Only eight NBA players who suited up into the 2000s have five or more rings—Robert Horry (seven championships), Michael Jordan (six), Scottie Pippen (six), Kobe Bryant (five), Tim Duncan (five), Derek Fisher (five), Ron Harper (five) and Steve Kerr (five).

5. Pass Gary Payton for fifth place on the all-time steals leaderboard

James has 2,417 swipes to his name, which ranks sixth all-time behind John Stockton (3,265), Chris Paul (2,728), Jason Kidd (2,684), Michael Jordan (2,514) and Gary Payton (2,445). James needs 29 steals to pass up “The Glove,” which he should do easily. Jordan sits 97 steals ahead of James. It’s not impossible but not likely—James hasn’t had 98+ steals in a season since he posted 116 with the Cavs in 2017-18. 

6. Score his 3,000th point in his 40s 

The undefeated Father Time has never seen an adversary like James. Since turning 40 years old on Dec. 30, 2024, James has scored 2,309 points in the regular season, the most for a player in his 40s in NBA history. For context, only four other players have scored more than 1,000 points in their 40s—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parrish, Vince Carter and John Stockton. Only 12 players in NBA history have scored a total of at least 100 points after their 40th birthday, and just 33 have scored a single point in that chapter of life.

According to Stathead, 352 players have scored over 3,000 points in their 30s. So, LeBron is 691 points away from accomplishing something in his 40s that roughly 7% of players in league history have achieved in their 30s. Lol.

7. Enter the top 20 on the all-time rebounds leaderboard

LeBron ranks in the top five in practically every notable statistical category (over 61,000 career minutes will do that), but he does currently sit 23rd all-time with 12,095 rebounds. Another 265 boards, and James will surpass Charles Oakley, Paul Silas and the late Dikembe Mutombo for 20th place in NBA history. 

8. Play in his 11th NBA Finals 

James has advanced to the NBA Finals in 43% of his seasons—10 of 23 years. It all started back in 2007 when he and the Cavs were swept in the Finals by the Spurs. James then went to eight Finals in a row from 2011 to ’18, a streak that was snapped in 2019 when the Lakers failed to make the playoffs. He was back the following year to win a title in the NBA bubble.

Only four players in NBA history have played in double digit Finals—Bill Russell (12), Sam Jones (11), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (10) and James (10). LeBron’s four titles are the fewest of that group (Russell won 11 rings), but he doesn’t own the record for the most Finals series losses. That belongs to Jerry West, who lost eight of his nine Finals appearances.

9. Pass Klay Thompson for the second-most career three-pointers in NBA playoff history

James, who has played over 40 more playoff games than anyone else in NBA history, currently ranks third in playoff three-pointers with 497. That comes in behind Steph Curry (650) and Klay Thompson (501). If the 76ers go on a deep playoff run, and Thompson’s Heat do not, LeBron could slide into second place on that leaderboard.

LeBron also ranks sixth all-time in three-pointers, but four of the five players ahead of him are still active—Curry, Thompson, James Harden and Damian Lillard. He’ll probably remain in sixth. 

10. Make his 23rd All-Star appearance

Close your eyes. Picture an All-Star Weekend without LeBron. You can’t? That’s because James has made 22 straight All-Star Games from 2005 to ’26. He already holds the record for most All-Star appearances, comfortably ahead of Abdul-Jabbar (19), Kobe Bryant (18) and Kevin Durant (16). But how cool would it be for the man who wears No. 23 to make his 23rd NBA All-Star Game? Pretty, pretty cool.


PODCAST 🎧: Listen to SI’s NBA podcast, Open Floor, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Published | Modified
Tom Dierberger
TOM DIERBERGER

Tom Dierberger leads Sports Illustrated’s NBA coverage as the Deputy News Director. He joined SI in November 2023 after stints at Fox Sports, Bally Sports and NBC Sports. Dierberger has a bachelor’s in communication from St. John’s University. In his spare time, he can be seen throwing out his arm while playing fetch with his dog, Walter B. Boy.

Share on XFollow tomdierberger