LeBron less than 120 PTS away from Kareem's record, controversial no call vs. Celtics | NBA Today

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I'm Malika Andrews what a weekend it was all over the NBA and as we look to flip the calendar to February we're on the brink of history here LeBron James is just 117 points

away

from breaking Kareem Abdul's all-time

record

Jabbar scoring

record

now the Lakers are in action tonight against Brooklyn but LeBron is not going to play the team says he has soreness in his left ankle Anthony Davis will also be out with a stress injury in his right foot, that means he is handling injury the next time we see LeBron it will be on the court tomorrow against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden so all signs point to him moving on to Kareem maybe Tuesday against the Thunder Thursday against the Bucks you can see his numbers on your screen there.

Here's a look at the odds for when he'll break that scoring record. This is according to sportsbook Caesar. Two-point field goal. Alright. Three-point free throw. Those are the odds on your screen, but I care more about what our team thinks. so here with the full panel Ramona Shelburn Tristan Thompson back with us Kendrick Perkins joins and Mark Speer so all of you have played against LeBron or covered his entire career so everyone has first hand knowledge of his game. He says: I want to know when they think maybe he's going to break the record or how they were seeing Tristan.

I'm going to start with you here. I think it's against the Bucks. I think it will be a left. Wing Theory I think it's just when he came into the League, everyone said you know he couldn't shoot, so why not be cream with a three-point shot? Yes, a ball sandwich. I love what stands out for you when you're Watching this moment in general, you know LeBron very well, yeah, I know for this moment. I take it back or even what I can relate to. I remember my rookie year being hurt and I think the word is dedication and I was hurt. in the weight room is going to get treatment and LeBron is on the way when Mike Mancillas three hours before the game and said, uh little brother, you know the weight room is in a place that prevents you from getting injured, but it will give you longevity in the league. and play at a high level and I remember the day he told me to go ahead and play five years in a row.

You can always remember in my head that the best thing in the world is to hit the weight room and work harder. and dedication to the game will give you that longevity, so it worked for me and I think throughout this moment he's been thinking about all those nights, all those times that I remember even when he came to Cleveland he texted us Kyrie and me. the day after Labor Day saying, hey, we have to be in the weight room at 9 a.m. m., yeah, and the fact that you know the best player in the world is texting me and Kyrie and we only won 27 games that year, you know it's time to get to work, it's championship or bust, yeah , and have the best game in the world, reach out to us as young people and that dedication to the craft is a testament to what you put into this game, it's what you get out and it shows here at 38.

He's still playing at a high level and It's like a point guard, you know, generally guys between 30 and 38 go from being a wing to being a backup five. Not him, LeBron or Kareem are known as a dominant scorer and yet. they'll go down as the all-time leading scorers, yeah, like LeBron was the first player, yeah, LeBron makes the right play, and it turns out he's about to break Kareem's all-time scoring record because he's played so well for so long, which is also how Kareem got there. Kareem's record brother Wilt Chamberlain when he became the leading scorer of all time and Kareem, you know, when he came in when he was 38 years old, the Lakers were still at it, they were still competing for championships, he was the MVP of the Finals. that finale That season, but he was doing yoga, he was doing all the meditation, going to bed early, all the things that we talk about now, like we live in Los Angeles, right, we're all doing yoga, we're doing hot yoga in the living room big.

Kareem was doing that in the '70s and '80s and that's how he played for so long and I had a conversation with Pat Riley, who coached Kareem during the Showtime Laker era and obviously also has a long relationship with LeBron and he said, "You know , I always". "I thought of Kareem as the greatest of all time because of how good he was for so long and this is really a longevity record for both Kareem and LeBron to be so good so late in your career, that's how you get so many longevity points As you can". we're using a word of the day determination if we're using words of the day we have to bring Kendrick Perkins your advantage thing how are you seeing all of this?

You know it's personal for me just when I think about Braun and I think about myself I've been part of this journey and I know people say limit and not limit, but this is not limit and I go back to the age of 14 when I played in the ship all alone, let's do a class D right here, brother and I, and hello, we've moved it fast, but no, get buckets real quick, ah, King James in the building we were in, look, we were in the sand working together, you know what I mean, that's how far we go back, but seriously, I'm going back to the point where it was the Houston Hoops Kendrick Perkins and the EB against LeBron James Drew Romeo of the Ohio Shooting Stars to plan together about the Oakland soldiers when we were 16 years old.

Me LeBron James. and Leon Poe uh between games having conversations while we eat while we eat McDonald's he's eating fruit drinking water going to media training like he knew he was destined or was destined to be what we're talking about right now he's the leading scorer of all time in NBA history is crazy to me and when I look at LeBron's journey and I look at what he's done and how he's prepared himself, I knew he was destined for greatness, I knew he was going to be one of the greatest ever. all-time and taking care of your body, taking care of your mental, making sure that your off-court habits, as far as being professional, are able to hold up, it's a beautiful thing to see and the last point I'm going to say is : Think about this for a second, what else can we really say?

What can we say? Can we mention it in a conversation about gold? Because LeBron could have retired three years ago. LeBron's killer retired three years ago. when he won a championship with the Lakers and no one would have said a damn word, but it still goes on to this day. What does he have left to achieve after winning this scoring title? What else? What else? What can we say? We can't talk. about LeBron and not revisiting what happened this weekend and everyone knows what I'm talking about, three seconds left in regulation. James comes out for a potential game-winning layup.

I mean, Jason Tatum clearly fouled him, but the refs didn't

call

. If the Celtics won in overtime, LeBron was, I mean, a little

less

than satisfied afterwards, you could see his body language here, listen to LeBron James, you guys saw some of the games we lost this year and we missed late games .

call

s, we had a chance to literally, you know, win the game. I mean, I had a second one in the last few weeks for me, we have no margin for error and it's one of the best games we play all year and for the fall. someone else must follow someone else's judgment or no-jasis that's ridiculous it's unacceptable and I guaranteed nothing will happen to the representatives we have cheetah tonight honestly it's a cauliflower child Blake just slaps his yeah it's unacceptable to be Honest, did you think I made contact with him, uh, the last two minutes in overtime was a blur.

No, I don't really know what happened. I have to see the game. Watch it on video. Everything was happening so fast. That's all I have to say. About that, I think the smile also says a lot. The official NBA referee account tweeted last night like everyone else. The referees made mistakes. We committed one at the end of Saturday's game and that is heartbreaking for us. This play will weigh heavily and cause sleep

less

nights as we strive to be the best referees we can be, so the back and forth, although it didn't end Saturday night because LeBron took to Instagram yesterday and posted on his stories.

Nice blocking Jason Tatum clearly highlighting that he's holding on to his arm there Tatum responded last night he was a champion of good blurry play and then the cherry on top of it all was Patrick Beverly having his little moment where he borrowed a photographer's camera court. He had never seen this before to show referee Eric. Lewis that Tatum had actually fouled LeBron. I love it, but Beverly immediately received a technical foul, so we're not here to debate whether it was a foul or not. I think we can all agree that it was an absolute foul, so Mark.

You throw out all that fuss, what catches your attention the most, oh, the camera, what's new, you know, I've been coming to the NBA for 24 years, I've never seen that, so I'm still focused on the camera that comes. I bring up the whole sequence at the end and I absolutely understand that referees make mistakes, we're not here to discuss that, but Tristan, when you were in it, your face tells me everything right now, this is ridiculous, this is, it's me, I . I've had so many problems with this, like when players make mistakes, we get fined, it's public knowledge, when coaches get in trouble, it's public knowledge, but referees, I know the NBA, you know, the report card of Keys or a check sheet of when referees make mistakes. and everyone is responsible, but for me as a player and a lot of players that I even talk to after the game, we are frustrated by the fact that every year at the beginning of the season they talk about how we are going to hold the referees accountable. to be coupled that things are going wrong but we don't see that we don't see it eh, the AP.

I talked to Harrison Barnes

today

, he said the AP doesn't get a report, we have to do a better job of keeping these replays at a high level. I guess I understand they're human. I understand people make mistakes, but this has happened so many times against Golden State in the first game when we're in the finals. LeBron takes charge. They go to the inspection center and change. to a block and it's not even less than two minutes, there's like three minutes left in the game, they changed that decision and then that leads to the free throw and everything and we lose the game, but things like that are very frustrating because this has happened to a lot of things to LeBron and the clip is shown here, we are, we have them against the wall, we are going to run and this changes the whole game, yes, this is the frustration and I see my brother's pain. eyes because I know how much he dedicates to the game and these things can't happen because this can this not only affects the Lakers, it affects the entire league, you know the standings and we have to do a better job, we have to do a better job cleaning up this and fixing this because this is ruining the league and this could be a make or break game for the Lakers when they can't come back yeah advantage last word on this.

Well, I remember being in the finals facing LeBron and I remember Kevin Durant also got fouled when we were at home, but that's another story, but this is what I want to say. I understand it was a foul, but you never leave it in the hands of the officials. and for a group of veterans like the Lakers, we're looking at LeBron James Anthony Davis Russell Westbrook Patrick Beverly like if those four guys were true veterans and they had five more minutes of basketball for the players, it was still overtime like this wasn't . the end of the world and what happened was they were so caught up in this like they were a young baseball club that they forgot they still had another chance to win the game which the Celtics capitalized on just because they were still pouting.

Pat Bev doing her thing for us with the cameras they forgot, we still have five minutes, we have another chance, forget the call, it happens all the time, like you still have a chance to win the game, sure point, I just think this one was It's so egregious that that's where people start to think about this stuff and what you're saying, believe me, we know referees' points go against them, whether they can call games in the finals or not, things like that, but it's that transparency you want to see you want to know when those things happen thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus