By Saya Alvares and Ella Marrufo

Sports Editors

On Feb. 7 in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers player Lebron James broke the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) all-time scoring record. With only 36 points separating him from former leader Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James scored 38 points to reach 38,390 points, becoming the next person to rule the NBA. Abdul-Jabbar held the previous record of a whopping 38,387 points, which stood since 1989. Abdul-Jabbar became the league’s leading scorer in 1984 and impressively held this record until James surpassed him. 

A four-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), James started his basketball career at a young age and got recruited to St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. He quickly became a sensational player, racking up 2,647 points over his four years at the school. After his junior year of high school finished, James considered going pro, but decided to stay to graduate. After his graduation in 2003, James – unsurprisingly – became the first overall pick and signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He played with the Cavaliers until becoming a free agent in 2010. In a monumental decision, he decided to sign with the Miami Heat where he stayed until returning to the Cavaliers in 2014. While playing for the Heat, the MVP secured his first title during the 2011-2012 season. He returned for the following two seasons with the Heat, winning another championship ring once more. After returning and winning a championship in 2016 with the Cavaliers, James once again moved on, signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 on a four-year 153.3 million dollar contract. For his fourth championship ring, James beat his former team Miami Heat to secure the win. 

James has continued to make history and leave his mark on the court in many ways, such as making NBA history in 2005 when he became the youngest player to score more than 50 points in a single game. He also started playing in the NBA All-Star games in 2005 and played in every All-Star game since. James competed for the United States Olympic basketball team in three different Summer Olympic Games: Athens, Beijing, and London. He won a bronze in the first Olympics and went on to win two consecutive gold medals. 

In 2022, James entered his 20th season in the NBA. At age 38, it is no surprise that fans and sports commentators alike have started to wonder when James will retire. According to Field Insider, the average retirement age for a player in the NBA is typically around 34 years old. As of 2022, we do know that James intends to stay playing basketball for some time, saying, “I don’t want to finish my career playing at this level,” after the Lakers’ back-to-back losses in December 2022. James also noted, in a postgame interview after the Lakers lost to the Miami Heat, “I don’t have a number [of years I want to keep playing] … As long as my mind stays in it, I can keep playing for a minute … We’ll see what happens and see how fresh my mind stays over the next couple of years.” 

(Sources: Biography, ESPN, CBS, CNN, Field Insider, NBA Interviews)