Lakers News: LeBron James Poised To Surpass A Laker Legend In This Key Stat
Los Angeles Lakers superduperstar forward LeBron James has been making his mark on the NBA record books for the best two decades. As his career heads into its third decade in 2022-23, The Chosen One is poised to eventually surpass Showtime Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's longstanding record for the most regular season points scored in league history. Much ink has been spilled on that topic already, but James is also set to surpass another Showtime Lakers Hall of Famer, Magic Johnson, in another arena.
Legion Hoops notes (and a quick parsing of Basketball Reference can confirm) that LBJ is merely nine dimes away from surpassing Magic's career regular season total of 10,141 assists. Once he leapfrogs Johnson, James will rank sixth all-time in career regular season assists. Of course, Johnson only played for 13 seasons, far less than James's 20 and counting.
James, averaging 6.3 dishes per game, seems likely to at least hit that number by Sunday, when the Lakers face off against the Washington Wizards, though it's certainly possible he ties or matches Johnson's 10,141 total tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks.
He could probably climb as high as fourth. Mark Jackson (10,334) and one-time Laker Steve Nash (10,335) are next in line, while the third-place player, Phoenix Suns All-Star Chris Paul, is very much still active, and continues to add on to his current sum of 11,071.
At 8-12, your Lakers have 62 games left in their season. James has missed an average of 21 games since joining L.A. as a free agent in 2018. He has already missed five this season, so let's assume he's available for 46 contests the rest of the way. Should he continue to dish out an average of 6.3 takes a night, James could make about 290 more assists on the year, which would put him at 10,423, safely ahead of Jackson and Nash for fourth place.
Tune in on ESPN at 4:30 p.m. PT to watch James do his darnedest against Giannis Antetokounmpo and co.
