LeBron James says the best thing he can do for his teammates is to take care of his body. Be available to play as often as possible, and the rest will come.
That proved true on Saturday when LeBron James broke Karl Malone’s NBA scoring record. LeBron James finished the defeat against Washington with 38 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
In doing so, he reached 36,947 points, which is 18 more than Utah legend Karl Malone. He now lies only behind KAreem Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 38,387 points in his career.
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James says what he has in common with the greats, aside from huge scoring numbers, is his longevity and endurance.
“Guys that just took care of their bodies for the majority of their career and always wanted to be available to their teammates. The most important leadership [trait] for you is to try to be available as much as possible on the floor. I think myself and him, we always just tried to be in uniform and make plays and stay in condition and try to stay healthy, stay injury-free as much as you can and also be productive on the floor. So yeah, absolutely.”
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“I will not allow myself to think about it (the all-time record),” James said. “I’ve always just played the game the way I’ve been playing it over the years, and these things have just happened organically by just going out and just playing the game the right way. Trying to win every game, playing the right way, playing for your teammates and things of that nature.
“So I hope to accomplish that at some point in my career, but I won’t think about it too much pretty much until we get there hopefully.”
