Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players ever. The dominance of being a three-time NCAA National Champion at UCLA and a six-time NBA Champion with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers supports the glorification of Abdul-Jabbar.
With his many accomplishments, one record that Abdul-Jabbar has held for 38 years and counting is the NBA all-time leading scoring record at 38,387 career points.
The 19-time NBA All-Star was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday and gave his thoughts on the emphasis of perimeter shooting in today’s NBA, and how he achieved his great record by only sinking in only one 3-point shot.
“I am still the all-time leading scorer in the @NBA and I only made one three-point shot.”
–@kaj33 on his legendary career in the NBA #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/HNwWcglLZk
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) June 21, 2022
The swagger Abdul-Jabbar brought with that crowd-roaring statement speaks to the greatness of that legendary record. An offensive game that was shaped around the post and his famous sky-hook that could extend out to the mid-range, Abdul-Jabbar’s ability to rack up that many points near the rim is truly amazing.
Current Lakers forward LeBron James is likely to break Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record next season. Standing at 37,062 total career points, James heads into the 2022-23 season projected to only need to play in 49 games at a high level in order to pass the Laker legend.
While James’ legacy will be boosted by potentially breaking the all-time scoring record, how he and Abdul-Jabbar both were able to dominate the scoring column in their respective eras with different play styles displays how the NBA is constantly evolving and even the greatest records are meant to be broken.
Lakers hire Jordan Ott to join Darvin Ham’s staff
The relationships Lakers head coach Darvin Ham has built throughout his NBA coaching career have gone on notice with some of the recent coaching hires the team has made.
The Lakers are reportedly bringing in Nets assistant coach Jordan Ott as a member of Ham’s staff, joining Phil Handy, Chris Jent and others.
Ott comes in with the strength on the offensive end after he played a key role in coordinating the offense Nets head coach Steve Nash implemented with the team last season.
The experience with installing an offense around all-stars such as Kevin Durant can be beneficial to Ham’s philosophy of maximizing the offensive ability of Laker All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The new-look Lakers offense can hopefully be a similar style to what was accomplished during the 2019-20 season as NBA champions.
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