Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks about LeBron James breaking his record on Daily Show

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has finally opened up about how he felt when LeBron James broke his NBA career scoring record earlier this month, revealing that he’s “pretty glad” his role is over.

For 38 years, no other basketball player in the US had come close to surpassing the legendary Laker’s 38,387 league points until the 38-year-old James pushed to surpass him in his 20th NBA season.

‘The King’ scored 38 points against Oklahoma City to become the league’s leading scorer on Feb. 7, with Abdul-Jabbar sitting courtside at Crypto.com Arena to watch the historic achievement, who knows all about himself after passing Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on April 5, 1984.

‘How did it make you feel?’ asked Sarah Silverman on the latest episode of The Daily Show on Wednesday.

“I would like to say that I am very happy that my role is over,” replied Abdul-Jabbar, 75. ‘You know, but Lebron worked very hard to achieve it. He deserves it. He has spent his adult life as a top athlete and has done an exceptional job at it.’

Abdul-Jabbar was present at the Lakers-OKC game when Lebron James broke his account

“And his heart is in the right place,” he added. ‘I don’t know, you may or may not know how she sent an entire school district to college. You can be doing a lot with that tuition money, you know? It could be on his own island.

But that’s where his heart is. So I have a lot of respect for him. I wish him well.

In the wake of James’ new milestone, Adidas decided to honor Abdul-Jabbar for his achievements both on and off the pitch by launching a limited-edition sneaker collection, called ‘Evolution of Excellence’.

Abdul-Jabbar, who is the only player listed as a member of the NBA’s 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams, wore adidas Superstars during his 1979-1980 season with the Los Angeles Lakers. , which ended with a second NBA title. and a sixth MVP award for the former big man.

Meanwhile, James is on track to eclipse the 40,000-point mark next season and is also under contract with the Lakers for one more season.

And even then there’s no guarantee that you won’t keep playing; He has said many times that he would like to stay in the NBA long enough for his son LeBron James Jr., known as ‘Bronny,’ to make it to the league, something that won’t happen until 2024-25 at the earliest. soon. .

The closest player currently in the NBA to James on the all-time list is Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, who has 26,684 points and just sought a trade from the Nets to the Phoenix Suns before the end of the trade deadline. the NBA last Thursday.

Durant, 34, would probably have to play at least another six or seven seasons just to reach Abdul-Jabbar’s mark, and who knows how much James will raise the bar by then.

James shoots the basketball to break Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record of 38,388 points

Abdul-Jabbar’s record stood tall for 38 years after surpassing Wilt Chamberlain’s 31,419 pts

James Harden, 33, of Philadelphia, and Russell Westbrook, 34, of the Lakers, each have just over 24,000 points.

Both are all-time greats, but their chances of catching ‘The King’ are pretty slim.

Dallas’ Luka Doncic is averaging 27.4 points per game so far in his career. But as good as the Slovenian is, he’ll need to average that many points over another 14 seasons or so before he hits the 38,000-point mark.

So unless the NBA adds a 10-point shot, the record won’t be broken for a long, long, long time.