After passing Karl Malone for second on the NBA's all-time scoring list, which could happen as early as Saturday night, when could Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James reach the top by surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
Malone retired after the 2003-04 season having played until he was 40, finishing 1,459 points shy of Abdul-Jabbar's record total of 38,387. Abdul-Jabbar, who retired in 1989 after a 20-year career, has been safe atop the scoring leaderboard for more than three decades. Before James, nobody besides Malone got within 4,700 points of Abdul-Jabbar's mark.