Game Day: Making LeBron James’ moment last

Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday, Feb. 8, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. LeBron James’ accomplishment in last night’s Lakers game is one for the history books. But first, it’s one for the newspapers and the DVRs.

There are other, perhaps more perishable sports headlines:

• The Clippers are climbing in the Western Conference and showing signs of being championship contenders.

• The Kings come back from the All-Star break one point out of first place in the Pacific Division but with something to prove.

• The Ducks have four victories in their past five games after winning in Chicago on Frank Vatrano’s overtime goal.

• The countdown to spring training, starting in a week, continues with analysis of the starting rotations of the Dodgers and the Angels.

• Check your local Southern California News Group paper for high school basketball playoff news, including wild-card games last night and first-round games tonight.

Readers will be setting aside today’s papers, wherever we keep our memories, to savor coverage of LeBron breaking fellow Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA career scoring record with a 14-foot, stepback jump shot late in the third quarter of a 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The SCNG papers mark the event on page A1 with a photo and headline: “KING HAS SCORING CROWN.” That’s above coverage of President Biden’s State of the Union speech. The sports section’s headline is simply “HAIL THE KING.”

Our competition, the Los Angeles Times, also played off the player’s nickname – King James, or just the King – with a headline reading, “IT’S HIS THRONE.”

That was the theme on the Lakers broadcasts, too.

On the radio, John Ireland called the shot this way: “LeBron one-on-one against Kenrich Williams, backing him in. Turns, shoots – scores! There it is! All hail the new king in town. Young and old, gather ’round. From one iconic Laker to another, the King, LeBron James, has passed the Captain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and LeBron now stands alone as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.”

On TV, Bill Macdonald described it this way: “LeBron 15 feet away from the goal. LeBron, for the record … he’s got it! He’s done it! LeBron James is now the all-time leading scorer in the history of the NBA. The King wears the crown.”

On TNT’s national telecast, Brian Anderson’s play-by-play went like this after LeBron received a pass from Russell Westbrook and dribbled three times: “LeBron James, a shot at history. And it goes in! LeBron stands alone. The NBA’s all-time scoring record now belongs to LeBron James.”

Anderson then did what Vin Scully did after calling Henry Aaron’s record-setting 715th home run, and went silent for 40 seconds while the crowd’s cheers and pictures of celebration told the story, before returning to narrate the scene of LeBron on the court with his family.

SCNG writers Kyle Goon, Mirjam Swanson and Jim Alexander, photographer Keith Birmingham and editors and headline writers went to work on deadline capturing the moment and its meaning.

“Pass first? Not this night,” Goon’s story begins, a nod to James’ reputation for liking assists as much as baskets. “Not with nearly 20,000 eyes watching him in a packed, breathless Crypto.com Arena, and millions more watching at home. They wanted LeBron James to shoot – clapped their hands and raised their voices. A roar erupted every time James touched the ball.

“So James – the 18-year-old who stormed into the NBA in 2003 and smashed every expectation put in his path for 20 years – gave them what they wanted,” Goon writes, setting up the sequence at the end of LeBron’s 16-point quarter.

“With 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter, after a rampage on the rim that had made the anticipation skyrocket, James bumped Oklahoma City’s Kenrich Williams with his right hip, then spun around into a turnaround fadeaway jumper – one of his signature shots – for his 12th field goal, his 36th point and into a place in NBA history no man has ever gone before.”

Alexander’s column emphasizes the poetry of James doing it with a fadeaway.

“I speculated in this space last week that when it came time for the record points, maybe LeBron would emulate Kareem and toss up a skyhook, but this was better,” Alexander writes “When Kareem set the record in April of 1984 against the Utah Jazz, he also did so with his signature shot.”

And Swanson’s column adds perspective to the occasion by making sure we appreciate that Abdul-Jabbar, at 75, is hardly diminished by the loss of the NBA regular-season points record he held for nearly 39 years.

“He’ll always be a Lakers legend, of course,” Swanson writes. “And a six-time NBA champ, and six-time league MVP, 19-time All-Star. At UCLA, a three-time NCAA champion and twice the collegiate player of the year. And if you want to include the identifiers that really count, a thought leader, social justice champion, a best-selling author – and a prolific one, having written autobiographies and mystery novels and, fittingly, history books.”

Says Swanson: “He makes his points now – on politics, culture, entertainment and even sometimes sports – with words.”

To see what Mirjam means, read Abdul-Jabbar’s piece on Substack this morning about James’ record.

Look for more perspective in the days ahead. In print and on the court, where the new scoring king must try to lead the struggling Lakers into the playoffs.

Get your LeBron and Lakers news by bookmarking SCNG’s Lakers page here and following Kyle Goon on Twitter (@kylegoon).

And save today’s newspapers in a cool, dry, protected place, so the historical record lasts as long as LeBron’s record itself.

TODAY

• The Clippers host the Dallas Mavericks, who are without injured Luka Doncic but have Kyrie Irving in uniform for the first time after his trade from the Nets (7:05 p.m., BSSC, ESPN).

NEXT QUESTION

Does the Lakers’ loss to the Thunder, and their failure to move up from 13th in the Western Conference, affect your appreciation of LeBron James’ record-setting moment last night? Share your feelings by email (KModesti@scng.com) or on Twitter (@KevinModesti).

280 CHARACTERS

“LeBron James will eventually – one day – get to 40,000 points. Who knows what his final number will be. But just know, if you watched tonight, it will be one of those ‘I remember where I was when …’ moments. Pending your age, you may never see that record broken again.” – Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) after LeBron James scored his record-setting 38,388th NBA regular-season point.

1,000 WORDS

Instant history: Here’s how the Daily News and other SCNG papers cover LeBron James’ NBA career scoring record in words and pictures today.

TALK BACK

Thanks for reading the newsletter. Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

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