Credits: NBA/X
Los Angeles Lakers’ icon LeBron James broke a 35-year-old record for most career minutes in the NBA, earlier set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. On Thursday, as the Lakers took down Sacramento Kings 113-100, James, clocked his 57,447th minute and thus, broke Jabbar’s record to become the all-time leader in regular-season minutes played. James, who is playing his 22nd season in the NBA, entered into the game with 57,437 minutes, just 10 minutes behind breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s record.
The 39-year-old set the mark in the second quarter and finished with 57,471 after playing for 34 minutes. Before him, Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time NBA champion and six-time Most Valuable Player, finished his career in 1989 with 57,446 minutes. Notably, with nearly 12,000 minutes in the playoffs, James spent nearly 70,000 minutes on court since the start of his career. Last year, he surpassed Abdul-Jabbar to become NBA’s all-time leading scorer and now has more than 41,000 points to his name.
They told me I'm old as hell and all that: LeBron James on surpassing Karim Abdul-Jabbar’s record
After breaking the 35-year-old record set by Karim Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James expressed his delight and said that it is a “cool honor.” He said, “They told me I'm old as hell and all that.” James added,“Obviously, anytime I'm linked with some of the greats that have ever played this game. I've been available to my teammates. I've been able to do this at a high level over two decades. And to continue to put myself in the record books in this game of basketball that I love so much and in the best league in the world is pretty cool and it's very humbling."
The Lakers will stay in Sacramento to finish off the two-game set, but James said he was not ready to look ahead to that contest. Speaking about his plans, James said, "I just set the all-time-leading [mark] in minutes, I am not thinking about this next game yet. I'm about to get to this [hotel] room, drink some wine, play some Madden and chill the f--- out."
