Lakers: LeBron James Is In A League of His Own
As Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA small forward LeBron James embarks on the start of his 20th regular season with L.A., he is already crashing a bunch of the league's record books.
James most recently entered the top 10 all-time in made three-pointers, during Thursday night's 103-97 loss to the L.A. Clippers. As the Lakers themselves announced today on Twitter, James already ranks in a variety of other top 10s.
Let's assess these top 10 rankings, which mostly account for regular season records.
When it comes to the postseason, James also has a bunch of records. Along with fellow Hall of Fame Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Chosen One has appeared in 10 NBA Finals, which ranks third all-time behind Boston Celtics greats Bill Russell (12 appearances) and Sam Jones (11). Two other historic Lakers, Magic Johnson and Jerry West, along with another Celtic, Tommy Heinsohn, rank fifth, with nine appearances apiece. James ranks second all-time for most Finals MVP awards, behind only Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan.
That of course comes with a major caveat: the award was first implemented in 1969, the last year of Russell's playing career. Russell's Celtics did win the title that year, in a seven-game series against the Lakers, but Jerry West's magnificent performance in that matchup actually netted him the honor, marking the first (and thus far last) time a player for a losing team has been named Finals MVP. Russell would handily rank first in Finals MVPs as the best player on 11 title clubs. Yes, there might be a few years where voters would get cute and give the honor to Jones or Bob Cousy, but overall, Russell would at least get a majority of Finals MVP honors for the other 10 appearances.
Point being, at worst, LeBron James would still rank third all-time for most Finals MVPs behind Jordan and presumably Russell.
King James has made a league-record 18 All-NBA Teams, and will certainly qualify for another couple should he remain healthy. He made the All-NBA Third Team last season, after playing just 56 games for a 33-49 Lakers club. Whether or not that level of output warranted being named one of the best 15 players in the league is not the point. He made it, and is probably going to at least get to 20 All-NBA Teams before all is said and done.
He is ranked second all-time in regular season points behind Abdul-Jabbar, but he seems destined to surpass Cap's mark by the end of this season. James actually already is the NBA's leading scorer in regular and postseason points (per StatMuse), ahead of Abdul-Jabbar, and even though that seems like the more meaningful metric, hoops heads seem far more interested in the regular season number for some reason.
Abdul-Jabbar is also the leader in All-Star game appearances with 19, a number that James (who ranks second with 18 appearances, tied with another Laker, Kobe Bryant), typically one of the two leading vote-getters, is likely to tie this year. His four league MVP awards have him fourth all-time. Abdul-Jabbar is the all-time leader in that category with six, a number James is unlikely to match or surpass given the quality of his Lakers teams in the near future. His 27.1 points per game average ranks fifth all-time, his 52,211 minutes played is third. James has thus far notched 105 triple doubles, which ranks in fifth place. His Lakers teammate Russell Westbrook ranks first with 194, Magic Johnson is third with 138. Should James stay healthy, it seems possible he could catch former Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd, currently in fourth with 107 triple-doubles. LBJ's 10,059 career assists ranks seventh all-time, right behind Johnson's 10,141. James ranks 10th historically in steals with 2,137. In terms of players with Lakers ties ahead of him, Kidd is second with 2,684, one-time Laker Gary Payton comes in at fifth with 2,445.
