Lakers: LeBron James Passes Two Legendary Guards As He Climbs All-Time Assists List
Los Angeles Lakers All-Star power forward LeBron James continues to make history this season. Although seemingly the entire basketball world is waiting with baited breath to see when LBJ surpasses another LA legend, Hall of Fame center and five-time Lakers champ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as the NBA's all-time leading regular season scorer, he just made a different kind of history tonight against the New York Knicks.
James, while wearing his team's classic retro Minneapolis Lakers white-and-blue jersey, made a driving bounce pass to Thomas Bryant for a cutting poster slam to put LA up 95-90 at the top of the game's fourth quarter, recording his ninth assist of the night.
By so doing, James now ranks in solo fourth place among the league's all-time regular season assist leaders, with 10,336 dimes total. To do so, James has leapfrogged past the totals of former New York Knicks/Indiana Pacers point guard Mark Jackson (10,334), now a commentator for ABC and ESPN, and Hall of Fame Phoenix Suns/Dallas Mavericks/Lakers point guard Steve Nash (10,335) --although, uh, we don't need to dwell on his Lakers tenure.
Phoenix Suns All-Star point guard Chris Paul, sure to be a future first ballot Hall of Famer himself, is currently third with 11,246 assists, and of course remains active, so it's possible fourth place is as far as James gets.
This is a massive achievement for James. Really, it's been quite the week for this 2022-23 Lakers team on the all-time assists list, as Russell Westbrook just entered the top 10 yesterday against the Nets. He currently has 8,976 dimes as of this writing.
