LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bronny James stepped over to his dad’s locker and played the phone video he had taken of Tuesday night’s biggest moment. The NBA’s new scoring king tipped his head back in a rich, full-throated laugh when the audio revealed Bronny had anticipated that the historic basket would come on a fadeaway jumper.
“That’s tough, that’s tough,” LeBron James said. “That’s funny.”
For James, the greatest cost of nearly two decades in the NBA is the family time he misses. When he reached arguably the greatest individual basketball milestone of all by passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career scoring record, James’ mother, wife and three children all witnessed the coronation.
They were right at courtside in a building packed with stars and roaring fans who rose in waves of anticipation every time he touched the ball.
James has been thriving under formidable pressure his entire adult life, and this was nothing the King couldn’t handle — although the man who says he almost never cries had tears in his eyes after he made history with that nimble step-back shot in the third quarter.
“I had a moment when it happened, and I embraced that moment,” James said afterward. “Seeing my family and friends, the people that’s been around me since I started this journey to the NBA, definitely very emotional right there. Just a kid from a small town in Ohio. I had a moment there, but I don’t think it’s really hit me, what just transpired.”
When James surpassed Abdul-Jabbar’s record 38,387 points, a crowd that had roared for his every basket went the craziest of all.
“A lot of people wanted me to go to the skyhook to break the record, or one of the signature dunks,” James said with a grin. “But the fadeaway is a signature play as well.”
The Los Angeles crowd screamed and stomped with every point while James steadily surged toward the mark held since April 1984 by Abdul-Jabbar, who watched the game from a baseline seat near the Los Angeles bench.
With four championship rings and nearly every other honor available to a basketball player, the 38-year-old James closed in on this next moment in history with the confidence of a player who has been even better than anyone could have expected two decades ago when the kid from Akron, Ohio, reached the NBA.
(Associated Press)
