It is extremely rare to find someone on whom great expectations were placed before he came to the fore, go on to match those expectations. In sports, it is almost non existent. Many of the greats that we have come – Pele, Michael Jordan, Muhammed Alli etc – did not have great expectations weighing them down. They had blank canvasses and simply proceeded to draw the patterns of greatness that we came to now revere them.
Lebron James (a.k.a. King James) bucks this trend. From high (secondary) school, much was expected of him. He was labeled “The Chosen One” on account of his play on the basketball court. At 17, with no professional game under his belt, he was on the cover of sports most glorious magazine, “Sports Illustrated”. Simply put, he was crowned at birth and had to work to live up to expectations.
With such a huge burden, he entered the NBA straight from high school. A whole lot was expected. 20 years on, still at the peak of his powers, he has ascended the top of the mountain as the highest scorer in the history of the NBA. The record he broke, 38,387 points, held by the incomparable Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, had stood for over 30 years.
The record was one that greats like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant did not get to. Many other great scorers have fallen by the wayside. Not Lebron The Chosen One. He has simply gone about it quietly and, last night, made history. What’s more, he looks good enough to take it well into the mid 40,000s. That’s how good he is still playing despite 20 years of wear and tear on his body.
There will be time to write more on the impact and game of Lebron. His titles, his various records, his game etc. Arguments, of course, will continue to rage about who is greater – Jordan, Lebron, Kareem or Kobe. An agreement may be increasingly hard to come by on the subject. But what will not be disputed is that Lebron James has scored the most points by an individual in the 76 year history of the NBA.
All stand for King James!!
