Editor’s note: This is the Tuesday, Jan. 7, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
LeBron James’ pursuit of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring record is only one of the Lakers’ cares these days. Maybe this case of competing priorities isn’tunusual, though: It was this way when Kareem broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record.
In other sports news:
James needs 36 more points to break Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA regular-season record of 38,387. If he doesn’t get it tonight at Crypto.com Arena against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he’ll almost certainly get it Thursday night in another home game against the Milwaukee Bucks.
But the day before he seeks basketball’s greatest individual record, LeBron was talking about other issues facing the Lakers and making headlines when he said in an ESPN interview that he’s “disappointed” they didn’t acquire Kyrie Irving before the Nets sent the All-Star guard to the Dallas Mavericks in advance of Thursday’s trade deadline.
With two months left to secure a playoff spot by finishing in the top six in the Western Conference or a play-in tournament berth by finishing seventh through 10th, the Lakers are 13th at 25-29. A win over the Thunder (25-28 and 12th in the West) would move them up one spot. A win over the Bucks (37-17 and second in the East) would make a statement.
If there’s any doubt it would be good to get the record out of the way as soon as possible and be able to focus on the team’s other goals, there might be a lesson to learn from when Abdul-Jabbar was on the cusp of eclipsing Chamberlain’s record of 31,419 points.
It was Thursday, April 5, 1984, and the Lakers were facing the Utah Jazz in Las Vegas, where the Jazz played 11 “home” games that season. The Lakers were winning comfortably in the fourth quarter, and Kareem was one basket away from the record. During a timeout, coach Pat Riley asked Kareem if he wanted to…
Read the full article here
