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Bobby Motus
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Thursday, January 19, 2017
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BEFORE anything else, we’ll be celebrating over the weekend the Dinagyang Festival. Let us be reminded that we have this feast in reverence to the Holy Child, Señor Sto. Nino. It is Him that we honor, not the booze.
Fourteen seasons ago, the National Basketball Association was in lustful anticipation of his coming. As a 19-year old rookie, he was a box office draw and became an endorsement attraction. Hundreds of millions of dollars later, this mutant specie of nature still wreaks havoc on the basketball floor and has mastered the fine art of flopping. Yes, built like sculpted granite, he falls and rolls to the floor with all the theatrics of a lesser mortal.
LeBron James recently turned 32. This season, he missed a few games not because of some injury but because team officials opted to rest their main attraction. Of the 37 games he played, Bron averaged 25.6 points. In the process, he overtook Hakeem Olajuwon in the NBA’s All-Time scoring list in the early part of November and just recently moved up over Elvin Hayes and Moses Malone.
To date, his running total of 27,782 points places him at number 8 on the list. He needs 814 points to overtake Shaquile O’Neal at seventh. As of this writing, Cleveland still has 42 regular season games on their schedule.
Let’s say Bron will miss 12 games this season and play a total of 70 games. He has played 37 games so far with 949 points. Averaging 25 points per game, he needs 709 points more for a 70-game total of 1,750. With this estimation, LeBron will overtake Shaq at seventh by May.
It’s obvious that LeBron takes care of his body very well and barring any serious injury, it is safe to say he’s good for at least another five years in the league. In an estimate, I will give LeBron a conservative 20-point combined scoring average during his last five seasons. With his durability, I will also give him 70 games per season.
This means he will produce 1,400 points each season for a five-season total of 7,000 points. We add this point total to his current 27,782 and a projected 825 for this season’s regular remaining games, it will give Lebron a six-season total of 35,607 projected points.
The point projection allows him to overtake Kobe Bryant (32,844) at number 3 on the all-time scoring list, next to Karl Malone who has 36,928 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387.
The end of the five-year projection has LeBron at 37-years old. Looking after the models of Kareem, Malone, Jordan, and Kobe who all played after they turned 38 and still averaged above 15 points a game, LeBron, though would have considerably have slowed down by that time, could still be playing and be productive when he gets 40-years old.
If this happens, he will be on top of the NBA’s All-Time leading scorers. One lingering question though. How many more championship rings can LeBron James collect?
Here are the NBA’s top ten all-time scorers:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (32,844), Michael Jordan (32,292), Wilt Chamberlain (31,419), Dirk Nowitzki (29,693 and counting), Shaquille O’Neal (28,596), LeBron James (27,521 and counting), Moses Malone (27,409) and Elvin Hayes (27,313)./PN
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