WATCH: ‘Tears of history!’ LeBron James gets emotional as Kareem Abdul Jabbar hands him over the ball after he broke the NBA all-time scoring record

One of the greatest of all time, LeBron James finally broke Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s record to become the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. Coming into the Los Angeles Lakers vs Oklahoma City Thunder game, James needed to score 36 points to break Jabbar’s record. Not many expected him to break the record against Oklahoma City but he went all guns blazing right from the start and broke the record before the third quarter itself.

With a step-back fadeaway bucket near the end of the third quarter, James surpassed Abdul Jabbar with 38,388 points. In 1984, Abdul Jabbar drop-stepped and iconically sky-hooked his way to breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record. When he retired in 1989, he made sure that the record is nearly out of reach and it was assumed that the record may never be broken.

To put things into perspective, even the best in the business weren’t able to break Abdul Jabbar’s record. The like of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Kobe Bryant failed to break the record but now, LeBron James stands tall at the top with the all-time scoring record.

The great man himself- Kareem Abdul Jabbar was present at the Crypto.com Arena to witness James passing his record and when James did that, he gave the 38-year-old a standing ovation. In a small presentation ceremony after James broke the record, Abdul Jabbar handed the ball over to James after which he was visibly emotional. He shed some tears of happiness and contentment before addressing the fans.

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NBA Twitter reacts to Kareem Abdul Jabbar passing the ball to LeBron James

Fans on social media were ecstatic seeing Abdul Jabbar passing the torch to James. Many crowned James as the GOAT and argued that he was almost 6000 more points the Jordan which clearly is enough to crown him the GOAT.

Eventually, the Lakers lost the game to Oklahoma City by mere 3 points, 130-133 despite James scoring 38 points in the game. Many can however debate that he scored only 2 points in the fourth quarter which cost the Lakers the game.

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