{"id":68571,"date":"2024-03-17T00:24:54","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T04:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=68571"},"modified":"2024-03-17T00:24:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T04:24:54","slug":"2-headed-goat-lebron-james-matches-another-michael-jordan-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/17\/2-headed-goat-lebron-james-matches-another-michael-jordan-record\/","title":{"rendered":"2-Headed GOAT: LeBron James Matches Another Michael Jordan Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At this point, one can\u2019t mention either <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jordami01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Jordan<\/a> without mentioning the other.<\/p>\n<p>As the debate of which of them is the greatest player of all-time rages on, it\u2019s become increasingly clear that the basketball world is looking at their side-by-side at the wrong angle. There are not two GOATs battling for supremacy. There\u2019s one two-headed GOAT that is sovereign among hoops royalty.<\/p>\n<h2>LeBron James Matches Another Michael Jordan Record<\/h2>\n<p>On Saturday, James continued to prove that to be true as he joined Jordan as the only player 39 or older to score 40 or more points in multiple games.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The only 39 year olds in NBA history with multiple 40-point games in a season. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1kOAM15V55\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1kOAM15V55<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 StatMuse (@statmuse) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/statmuse\/status\/1769198471523811365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Once again dominant against the Golden State Warriors, James finished his night with 40 points, nine assists, eight rebounds, one steal, and one block and 38 minutes. Going 15-23 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, and 7-8 from the charity stripe, the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer was efficient throughout.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/roE7-jFIeAs?si=eVV5k2BFnI_4ulFh\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>However, every time he and the Lakers threw a punch, the Warriors hit back. Ultimately, in what\u2019s been a theme throughout James\u2019 career \u2014and the difference between him and Jordan \u2014his efforts were all for naught. The Lakers fell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/gsw-vs-lal-0022300973\/box-score\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">128-121<\/a>, unable to overcome 80 combined points from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/curryst01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Curry<\/a> (31), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klay Thompson<\/a> (26), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuminjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> (23).<\/p>\n<p>James has had several historic moments this season. His most notable was becoming the first player in NBA history <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/24\/lebron-james-approaching-milestone\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">to score 40,000 career points<\/a>. Achieving the feat only this month, these performances so late in his career help don\u2019t just his longevity into perspective. It\u2019s always another way to measure his stature among the league greats.<\/p>\n<p>32 players have played at 39 years or older, including James. Several, including Jordan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/abdulka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duncati01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tim Duncan<\/a>, have been considered among the top five players in NBA history. For James to stand with Jordan \u2014arguably the most decorated player of all-time \u2014on the mountaintop even in \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/statmuse\/status\/1769198736343753030?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">longevity stats<\/a>\u2019 is just another indication of his being at the head of the class.<\/p>\n<h3>How Much Longer Can James Dominate?<\/h3>\n<p>James can still devastate the rim on the drives to the hoop.<\/p>\n<p>The loss of the burst he had in his youth has made his first step less threatening than in past years. However, he\u2019s still athletic enough \u2014and more than strong enough \u2014to make it to the rim all but at will. Of course, he\u2019s not finishing as high above the rim as his younger days. Nonetheless, always great at putting the English on his layups, the ambidextrous all-timer is a threat even below the rim.<\/p>\n<p>Still, James\u2019 touch from the perimeter may be the ultimate predictor of his future success. To that point, James is shooting 40.6 percent from 3, tied for his career-high.<\/p>\n<p>The timeless wonder has fallen victim to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/09\/lakers-scary-injury-reports-lebron-james-anthony-davis\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his most severe injuries<\/a> since joining the Lakers. However, he can preserve his body by continuing to lean into this part of his game. At the end of the day, his only battle is his against himself. Against his body. He can win that with his mind, his experience, his craftiness, and his shooting touch,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At this point, one can\u2019t mention either LeBron James or Michael Jordan without mentioning the other. As the debate of which of them is the greatest player of all-time rages on, it\u2019s become increasingly clear that the basketball world is looking at their side-by-side at the wrong angle. There are not two GOATs battling for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":68575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,8,9,26],"tags":[38,607],"class_list":["post-68571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-bulls","category-cavaliers","category-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-michael-jordan"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}