LOS ANGELES — Was it too forward, maybe, when LeBron James went out to the floor for early warmups on Tuesday night wearing headphones with 38,388 printed on them?
Or was it just a case of being prepared for the moment?
A night of high anticipation, with a media contingent of at least a couple hundred and a full house on hand, reached its intended conclusion with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter of the Lakers’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and it ended appropriately, too.
LeBron took a pass in the post, backed down OKC’s Kenrich Williams, and then unleashed his own unstoppable shot, a 21-foot fallaway jumper that found nothing but net and pushed his career point total to 38,388, one ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
I speculated in this space last week that when it came time for the record points, maybe LeBron would emulate Kareem and toss up a skyhook, but this was more appropriate. When Kareem set the record 38 years ago against the Utah Jazz, he did so with his signature shot. When LeBron broke it, he did it with his.
He needed 36 points coming in, had 20 by halftime and dispensed with any suspense in the third quarter, delighting a crowd that came to attention every time he touched the ball, roared when he scored, groaned when he didn’t and all seemed to have their phones out to record the historic shot on video.
During the brief on-court ceremony that included NBA commissioner Adam Silver, James exchanged hugs with his wife and mother and then with a smiling Abdul-Jabbar, accepted the ball, then prompted the fans to “give a standing ovation to the Captain.”
He also had a bleepable moment at the end of his address to the crowd – “(Expletive), man, thank you guys” – but I think we can cut him some slack.
And you know which folks who were probably saying (expletive) for a different reason? Those who had put their tickets to Thursday night’s game against Milwaukee up for sale.
According to a release sent out by StubHub on…
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