On April 6, 1984, Abdul-Jabbar broke Chamberlain's record (31,419 points) to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer, more than eight months before James was born. Five years later, on June 14, 1989, Abdul-Jabbar played the final regular season game of his career, raising the all-time scoring record to 38,387 points.

In the past 34 years, Jordan, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Nowitzki and other people have launched an impact on Jabbar's record, all ended in failure. So much so that almost everyone began to default that no one will surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which is the most difficult record to break in NBA history. Even after James landed in the NBA in 2003, he wasn't considered the record-breaker for quite some time.

Over time, when James's total points step by step more than 10,000 points, 20,000 points, 30,000 points, when he ruled the youngest record in each thousand sections, and the state of the game does not seem to decline at all - everyone realized that Jabbar's record is not unbreakable, James became the all-time scoring champion is only a matter of time.

On February 8, 2023, after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar raised the record to 38,387 points 12,292 days later, the all-time scoring leader finally changed hands. From the age of 18 to 38, Cleveland, Heat, Lakers 3 teams, played 20 seasons, played 1410 regular season games, James finally boarded the NBA history scoring throne. The era of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is over, and the era of James is just beginning.

From 1,000 to 10,000 points, even breaking Kobe's record

In April 2003, Jordan retired again after playing the last game of his career, and the NBA officially bid farewell to the "Flying man". Two months later in the draft, the Cavaliers selected the 18-year-old "Little Emperor" James with the first pick.

Who will be Jordan's successor? At that time, the answer of most people is probably "Peter Pan" Bryant, who has just led the Lakers to achieve three consecutive championships and holds a number of scoring records by an absolute margin. On October 30, 2003, when James made his NBA debut and scored 25 points at the age of 18 years and 303 days, Bryant was only 25 years old.

Since landing on the NBA arena, James has never been a super scorer in the league, the reason why the outside world has high hopes for it, the biggest reason is its influence on the game, infinite potential, and incomparably comprehensive ability. Even so, with the obvious advantage of age, many of the scoring records Bryant once maintained were still trampled by James one by one.

On February 10, 2004, at the age of 19 years and 41 days, James surpassed Kobe Bryant at 19 years and 127 days to become the youngest "Mr. 1,000 Points" in history. On January 22, 2006, just one day before Bryant scored 81 points in a single game, James broke Bryant's record at 21 years and 22 days, becoming the youngest "Mr. 5,000 Points" in history. On February 28, 2008, at the age of 23 years and 59 days, James surpassed 10,000 career points and became the youngest player ever to be named Mr. 10,000.

In the years when Bryant was constantly contributing to the scoring feast and staying in contention for championships, the youngest scoring records James broke seemed irrelevant. To look at it today, it is a powerful footnote to James' march to the historical scoring champion.

Before joining the Lakers, James had won three NBA titles and passed the 30,000 point mark.

Crossing the 30,000 mark while chasing a championship

In his fourth year in the league, James led the Cavaliers to the Finals, where they lost badly to the Spurs. In the 2008-2009 season, James won his first regular-season MVP award and won it the following year.

At that time, the outside world was more concerned about when James could win a championship and how many regular season MVPS could he win? Especially when he joined the Heat in the summer of 2010, the championship became the only keyword to judge James's success. As for the career points total, the title of the youngest player, a lot of things are forgotten.

Just because no one mentioned it doesn't mean James stopped walking. Extremely high attendance, extremely stable offensive efficiency, so that James's career total points continue to climb. On March 20, 2010, at the age of 25 years and 79 days, James passed the 15,000 point mark before leaving the Cavs. In January 2013, six months after winning the championship for the first time in his career, James became the youngest "Mr. 20,000 Points" in history.

After four seasons with the Heat, James won two championships, and after returning to Cleveland, he led the team to stage the biggest comeback in Finals history in 2016, helping his hometown team win its first championship. With Kobe Bryant's retirement in the summer of 2016, James became a worthy first in the league.

On January 24, 2018, at the age of 33 years and 24 days, James surpassed 30,000 career points, becoming the youngest "Mr. 30,000 Points" in history. In the historical scoring list, he is only left in front of Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Jordan, Chamberlain, Nowitzki and other 6 legends, and is closer and closer to Jabbar's unreachable record.

Go after Jordan and then pass Kobe, over the mountain of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In the summer of 2018, James joined the Lakers and began another journey in his career. In the first season of wearing the purple and gold jersey, James is catching up with other legends faster and faster in terms of career total points.

At the beginning of the 2018-2019 season, James first surpassed Nowitzki, who was not yet retired, and rose to sixth place on the all-time scoring list. On November 15, 2018, the first "Mr. 30,000 points" Chamberlain's record (31,419 points) was also left behind by James, and Jordan's record (32,292 points) was in sight.

James didn't keep fans waiting long. On March 7, 2019, after his career total score surpassed Jordan and ranked fourth on the all-time scoring list, James cried with joy, "I have been looking up to Jordan from a distance." Imagine shooting fadeaway jumpers like he did, dunking with his tongue sticking out like he did, dominating games like he did. The whole 'surpassing Michael Jordan' thing is crazy."

In a previous interview, James repeatedly mentioned Jordan and Kobe as his idols, "I have admired them since childhood and want to learn more from their games." It's an honor to be associated with their names and records." On January 26, 2020, James surpassed another idol - surpassing Kobe Bryant's 33,643 total points. It is worth mentioning that Bryant's last social media dynamic was to congratulate James on surpassing himself and rising to the third place on the all-time scoring list, "Continue to push the sport forward!" All respect to you, my brother."

After passing Bryant, James was left behind only Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

After leading the Lakers to the championship in the summer of 2020, four championships and three different teams have made James' career nearly complete. At the same time, his journey to chase the all-time scoring title is getting easier, "the possibility doesn't weigh on me because I can definitely do it, it's just a matter of time."

On March 20, 2022, James surpassed Karl Malone's total career points (36,928) and rose to second place in history.

23 years, Jabbar's record (38,387 points) is officially gone, the new historical scoring champion was born, and the honor belongs to the 38-year-old James.