When LeBron James passed Karl Malone for , he set his sights firmly on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's current all-time leading scorer.
James enters the 2022-23 season, his 20th in the NBA, needing only 1,326 points to surpass Abdul-Jabbar's career total of 38,387. Given that James has scored at least 1,500 points in 18 of his previous 19 seasons, it seems likely that he'll break the record this year, ending Abdul-Jabbar's 38-year run as the NBA's most prolific scorer.
Abdul-Jabbar has been atop the career points list since April 5, 1984 -- eight months before James was even born -- when he broke the mark previously held by Wilt Chamberlain.