In the Los Angeles Lakers most recent outing on Thursday, superstar LeBron James appeared in his 1,542nd career regular season game. That allowed him to surpass Vince Carter for third place on the all-time games played list. At the age of 40, James is still mighty productive, and it certainly seems as if his playing career will continue after this season. When will he have the opportunity to set another NBA record, this one being most career games played?
When Will LeBron James Break Career Games Record?
Numerous Records In Historic Career
There are numerous records that James holds from his legendary career. Some of those include most points (41,707) and most minutes (58,328). Those are from the regular season, but the four-time NBA champion has many postseason records that seem unbreakable. Those include points (8,162), games played (287), minutes played (11,858), field goals made (2,928), free-throws made (1,836), and steals (438).
Now another career record that James inevitably looks to earn is most career regular season games. With his 1,542 career games, there are only two names that he is looking up to.
One is the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Over 20 seasons, the six-time MVP appeared in 1,560 contests. With the Lakers having 28 games remaining in the regular season, James would need to play in 19 of them to pass Abdul-Jabbar in 2024-25. It was in 2023 when James overtook Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring leader.
James can’t pass the all-time leader in games played this season, but he can further close in on the record. The most games played record is owned by ‘The Chief’ Robert Parish. Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, Parish took part in 1,611 regular season games. A four-time NBA champion and nine-time All-Star, Parish played 21 seasons.
LeBron James Should Break Career Games Record Next Season
As long as James plays next season, he will in all likelihood break the games played record. Not just that, he will have played the most ever seasons in the league. Right now, he is tied with Carter for the most-ever with 22. Parish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki were all in the league for 21 years.
Back to games played though, as James is currently 70 appearances away from overtaking Parish as the all-time leader. When may James become the record holder for regular season games played?
This season, James has played 50 of the Lakers 54 games. That puts him on pace to miss just two more. While projecting injuries certainly isn’t easy, if he played in 26 of Los Angeles’ remaining 28 outings, that would put him at 1,568 career games.
If that were to happen, James would be just 44 appearances away from passing Parish. That is barely more than half a season. Again, it’s hard to project injuries, but it surely seems like James can pass the Celtics icon next season. While the NBA schedule is not out for next season yet, the Lakers played 52 games prior to the All-Star break this season.
So it can be projected that James may pass Parish right around next season’s All-Star break. His current contract has a player option for 2025-26 worth around $52.63 million.
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