“My motivation is this ghost I’m chasing. The ghost played in Chicago.” LeBron James’ quote about Michael Jordan from a 2016 Sports Illustrated interview caused a stir in the NBA world. Detractors of the King and Jordan-fanatics alike quickly voiced their resentment over LeBron suggesting he was competing with Jordan to be the GOAT. Fundamentally it is a matter of individual opinion, preference, and bias, but in a literal statistical sense, LeBron actually caught Jordan, even surpassed him in categories including career points, rebounds, assists, and more. Today in sports history marks the day LeBron passed Jordan in career postseason points.
LEBRON JAMES PASSED MICHAEL JORDAN AS ALL-TIME PLAYOFF SCORING KING
LeBron averaged 28.75 points in the playoffs on his way to breaking the postseason scoring record. Jordan averaged 33.4 points himself which raises the question of how LeBron managed to surpass him. The answer is games played. The King’s durability and career longevity are often brought up to disparage his accomplishments, the argument being LeBron had such great stats because of increased opportunity. There is truth to that sentiment.
On the other hand, it’s even more impressive the King was able to have such deep postseason runs on an annual basis, never losing in the first round once in his entire NBA career. With regards to all-time playoff points, it took Michael Jordan 179 postseason appearances to set the record and James 217 to pass it.
Third on the record list is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem required 18 years in the playoffs and 237 games to set his mark. LeBron’s postseason debut came in his third season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The following year he carried his team to the Finals only to be swept by the San Antonio Spurs. He famously reached the Finals eight straight years winning three during the run. The majority of his career playoff points came during that period with about 20+ postseason games a year.
May 25, 2017: Cleveland #Cavaliers SF @KingJames passed Michael Jordan to become the all-time scoring leader in NBA Playoff history (5,989 PTS) 🐐
— Pro Sports Outlook (@PSO_Sports) May 25, 2021
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