The 2022-23 NBA Season has been plagued by overarching storylines.

Will Nikola Jokic turn out to be simply the fourth participant in NBA historical past to win 3 instantly MVPs?

Will the Golden State Warriors conquer preseason turmoil to win their 2nd instantly NBA identify?

Who will win the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes?

Leader amongst a majority of these narratives has been the query of whether or not or no longer the sport’s largest participant ever (perhaps?) will destroy essentially the most sacred document within the game.

With simplest 283 issues sitting between LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and 37 Los Angeles Laker video games left at the season, the query is not an issue of will he do it, however reasonably, when and the place will he destroy the scoring document.

To take a look at and determine this out, we’re going to want to perform a little ~ math.

At the season, The King is averaging 29.8 PPG. If he continues that reasonable, he’ll surpass Abdul-Jabaar in kind of 9.5 video games. So, it might be in the midst of the Lakers’ Feb. 7 conflict with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Likelihood is that, even though, with the best way James has been taking part in of overdue, it’s going to even come faster than that. Throughout the month of January (7 video games), James has been averaging 34.9 issues in keeping with contest. If he continues to attain at that price, he’ll turn out to be the all time main scorer 8.1 video games from now, which might imply he would destroy the document early in his workforce’s highway matchup in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans on Feb. 4.

(Sidebar: confidently, Zion Williamson is healthy for that sport as a result of it might make for a in point of fact cool tale to look one generational ability destroy the all time scoring document in entrance of every other one.)

However wait, our projections are failing to account for one necessary variable — well being. To this point, James has simplest participated in 35 of the workforce’s 45 video games (77.8%), that means he’s lacking kind of two out of each 10 video games.

If that harm development continues whilst he’s scoring on the 29.8 PPG tempo, he’ll destroy the document at the highway in opposition to the Golden State Warriors on Feb. 23. If he’s on the 34.9 PPG scoring clip, he would be the proprietor of the best document in basketball by means of the top of the Lakers’ house sport in opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9.

For those who question me, this is most likely the best-case state of affairs. James shall be at house, taking part in in opposition to the participant many view as the present supreme participant on this planet, Giannis Antetounkmpo, taking part in for the workforce Abdul-Jabbar set the scoring document with, in opposition to the workforce he scored 14,211 of his 38,387 profession issues for.

Without reference to what the storyline is, James is coming for Abdul-Jabaar’s throne. And in keeping with our projections, it looks as if it is going to be all his rather quickly.

To watch James’ proceeding pursuit of the scoring identify in actual time, consult with our scoring tracker over on the Silver Screen and Roll.