LeBron James’ moment lingers – Orange County Register

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

Good morning LeBron James’ performance last night lakers Game is one for the history books. But first it’s one for the newspapers and the DVRs.

There are other, perhaps more ephemeral, sports headlines:

• The clippers climbing in the Western Conference and showing signs of being championship contenders.
• The kings come off the All-Star Break a point behind first place in the Pacific Division but with something to prove.
• The ducks has had four wins in his last five games after winning in Chicago through Frank Vatrano’s overtime goal.
• The countdown to spring training, which begins in a week, continues as the Dodgers and Angels start rotations are analyzed.
• Catch up on high school basketball playoff news, including last night’s wildcard games and tonight’s first-round games, in your local Southern California News Group newspaper.

Readers will put aside today’s newspapers, wherever we keep our memories, to enjoy coverage of how LeBron smashed fellow Lakers tall Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA record-breaking record with a 14-foot stepback -Jumpshot broke late in the third quarter with a 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

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

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

That was also the theme on the Lakers broadcasts.

On the radio, John Ireland called the shot: “LeBron one on one against Kenrich Williams support him. Spins, shots – points! There it is! Everyone welcomes the new king in town. Young and old, gather together. From one legendary Laker to another, the king, LeBron James, has overtaken the captain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and LeBron now stands alone as the all-time leading scorer in the NBA.”

As Bill Macdonald described it on TV, “LeBron 15 feet from goal. LeBron, for the record… he’s got it! He did it! LeBron James is now the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. The king wears the crown.”

Here’s how Brian Anderson’s play-by-play played out on TNT’s national television show after LeBron received a pass from Russell Westbrook and dribbled three times: “LeBron James, one shot in history. And it goes in! LeBron stands alone. The NBA all-time record now belongs to LeBron James.”

Anderson then did what Vin Scully did after calling out Henry Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run and fell silent for 40 seconds while the crowd’s cheers and images of the celebration told the story before returning to take the scene of LeBron on to tell the place with his family .

SCNG writers Kyle Goon, Miriam Swanson and Jim Alexander, photographer Keith Birmingham, and editors and headliners got to work to capture the moment and its meaning.

“Just over? Not tonight,” begins Goon’s story, a nod to James’ reputation for liking assists as much as baskets. “Not with nearly 20,000 eyes watching him in a crowded, 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 burst into the NBA in 2003 and spent 20 years shattering every expectation that came his way — gave them what they wanted,” Goon writes, building 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 sent the anticipation soaring, James bumped his right hip into Oklahoma City’s Kenrich Williams and then spun into a turnaround fadeaway jumper — one of his signature shots — for his 12th field goal, his 36th point, and a place in NBA history that no human has set foot before.”

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

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

And Swanson’s column adds perspective to the occasion by ensuring we appreciate that at 75, Abdul-Jabbar is little diminished by losing the NBA regular-season scoring record he held for nearly 39 years .

“Of course he will always be a Lakers legend,” Swanson writes. “And a six-time NBA champion and six-time league MVP, 19-time All-Star. Three-time NCAA champion and two-time collegiate player of the year at UCLA. And if you want to include the identifiers that really count, a thought leader, a social justice advocate, a best-selling author – and a prolific one who has written autobiographies and detective fiction and, appropriately, history books.”

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

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

Look for more prospects in the coming days. In the press 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 keep today’s newspapers in a cool, dry, sheltered place so the historical record will last as long as LeBron’s record itself.

TODAY

• clippers Hosts the Mavericks, who will be without the 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

Do it lakers‘ Loss to the Thunder and their failure to move up from 13th place in the Western Conference affects your appreciation for LeBron James’ record-breaking moment last night? Share your feelings via email (KModesti@scng.com) or on Twitter (@KevinModesti).

280 CHARACTERS

“LeBron James is going to hit 40,000 points at some point – someday. Who knows what his last number will be. But just know, if you’ve been watching tonight, it’s going to be one of those “I remember where I was when…” moments. Depending on your age, you may never see that record broken again.” — Tarek Fattal (@Tarek_Fattal) After LeBron James hit his record-breaking 38,388. NBA point in the regular season.

1,000 WORDS

Instant Story: Here’s how the Daily News and other SCNG newspapers reported today, in words and pictures, on LeBron James’ NBA career scoring record.

TALK BACK

Thank you for reading the newsletter. Email suggestions, comments, and questions to [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

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