Mateo’s Hoops Diary: Better Scorer…. LeBron or Kareem?

LeBron James is 1,325 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the regular season for the all-time scoring crown.  He’ll shatter the record before the upcoming NBA year concludes if Father Time doesn’t visit him and claim some of his powers.  If that happens, he’ll still have until 2025, when his contract expires.  

When James claims the record, will it mean he’s a better scorer than Abdul-Jabbar?  It depends on who you ask and how old they are.  

LeBron is one of the most efficient scorers the league has ever seen, and to his credit, he averaged a career-high in points per game in his 19th season.  The millions he spends annually on maintaining his body are paying off by keeping him in world-class shape.  

Indeed, the rule changes throughout the last few decades have tilted the game entirely in favor of the offensive player.  This has assisted James and players of his era by lowering the degree of difficulty to score because there is less physicality in the league now.  Defenders can’t hand check, and more recently, shooters have additional protection because of the unofficially named Zaza Pachulia rule.  According to the NBA’s law, defenders must give a shooter landing space.

These rules are a good thing.  When the game was more physical, it could allow certain players to affect the outcome of a match without using basketball skills.  Some of the effects of the rule changes, like the game becoming more perimeter-oriented, are not such a great thing, but that’s an argument for another day.  

LeBron hurts a defense primarily within 0-10 feet from the basket.  He’s never been better than a streaky shooter, but he never had to be with how efficient he is inside the paint.  Although, in certain situations, being guarded in single coverage on the perimeter, I wish LeBron would just cut or use his body to post up instead of taking a jumper.  When he settles for outside looks, he guards himself by forfeiting an opportunity to bang down low.  For his career, James converts 73.7% of the shots he takes within 0-3 feet of the cup.

Is LeBron the Greatest Scorer Ever? | Mateo Mayorga Takes Five https://t.co/CvDD6p6bnr via @YouTube

— Five Reasons Sports (@5ReasonsSports) August 30, 2022

In the first half of LeBron’s career, he was an unforgiving wrecking ball.  His cuts to the basket had to be guarded below and above the rim.  Those who followed his career can vividly remember when he jumped over John Lucas III on the baseline, caught a lob from Dwyane Wade, and slammed it, all with one hand.  Or when he obliterated Jason Terry with his chest for futilely trying to contest an alley-oop. 

James is a slasher. Despite his inconsistencies as a perimeter shooter, the more concerning flaw to his game, aside from underusing the post, is that he isn’t near automatic from the line.  He’s finished five seasons recording below 70% from the charity stripe.  In 2021/2022, James was 18th in the NBA in free throw attempts (6), but someone as tall, muscular, and agile as he should be taking close to double-digit freebies, making a minimum of 80%.

A player doesn’t have to be a flashy gunslinger to be considered the best at dropping points.  As far as the most recognized scorers of his era- Kobe Byrant, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Stephen Curry- James has a higher career field goal percentage and points per game average than all minus KD.  Durant is behind James in field goal percentage by a hair, but he barely leads the Lakers forward in scoring average.

Having gotten this close to Abdul-Jabbar is mind-blowing.  I thought his record was untouchable, but it’s inevitable James makes it his.  Like Kareem said, “The game always improves when records like that are broken.”

Abdul-Jabbar played from 1969-1989.  Basketball wasn’t the spaced-out game that is seen today because the NBA didn’t have a 3-point line until 1979, and after its arrival, it wasn’t valued by the players like the current generation does.  The ballers, then too, had more leeway with contact.  Despite that, Kareem was still lighting up the league with his arsenal of post moves.  

It should also be noted that Kareem played the first 12 seasons of his career, scoring on hard rims.  Any shot attempted had to be clean for it to go in, and there were not as many friendly bounces before the breakaway rim was introduced.

The masses ceaselessly and incorrectly give Abdul-Jabbar props saying his skyhook was unguardable.  Click here for proof of Wilt Chamberlain swatting multiple attempts on the same possession.  Julius Erving, Bill Willoughby, and Manute Bol also deserve a head nod for blocking Kareem’s hook from behind.  

The skyhook was indefensible against 99% of the league because it was something he worked on from the time he was in fifth grade.  It was mastered when he arrived at UCLA.  

Even with the NCAA forbidding dunks from 1967-1977, Kareem still dropped over 2,300 points before making the pros.  

Abdul-Jabbar was a master in the post. Defenders would lean on his hip to bump him off his spot, and he would respond by aiming his left shoulder at the basket and catapulting a shot with his right.  Or he would hit a fader, back down an opponent, or pivot past them for a layup or dunk.

One of the coldest moments in NBA history was the closing moments of overtime in Game 6 of the 1974 Finals.  Down a point with seven seconds left, Kareem caught a pass at the right elbow, pivoted, and took off towards the rim, facing a double team.  He raised on the baseline and buried his signature move, extending the season finale to another game.

Verdict

Who gets the edge?   What determines who is the better scorer, in my book, is who was harder to guard.  

They are dissimilar players.  James, a point-forward, he decides who gets the ball.  Abdul-Jabbar was a center and, like a wideout in football, depended on his playmaker feeding him the rock.

Both of them are most lethal near the rim.  At 7’2, Abdul-Jabbar is five inches taller than James, and the size advantage creates more mismatches against defenders.  Being a towering post scorer also leaves a player in great position to recover offensive rebounds for putbacks.  

Before LeBron developed an adequate outside shot, intelligent rivals would sag off, daring him to misfire.  It was a safer bet than guarding close up and conceding a lane.  Even through traffic, to this day,  James is an excellent finisher, but his kryptonite inside the paint is a legit shot blocker.

Kareem’s hook is so deadly that when he missed, it was more his fault than the man guarding him.  Aside from the Dipper, nobody had a chance of contesting it straight up.  Not in this life.  The others who blocked it from behind made unforgettable saves that must have bewildered the  “tower of power”.  But that move ate up schemes deployed to neutralize Abdul-Jabar, and he still had an abundance of other techniques to use.  

In this department, I’ll roll with Kareem, regardless of his reign as scoring leader, eventually coming to a close.  

When it’s all over, the only thing people will be able to say when examining the record is that at the peak of their powers, the league was theirs.

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