Here’s a sentence you’ve probably gotten used to over the last several years: LeBron James has passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for a major NBA record.
Back in 2023, he famously overtook Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Months later, he broke Abdul-Jabbar’s record for most minutes played in the regular season and playoffs combined. And, as the Lakers took on the Kings on Thursday, he played his 57,447th regular-season minute in the NBA. That breaks a record Abdul-Jabbar set back in 1989, making James the NBA’s new all-time regular-season minutes king.
It’s an appropriate moniker for James. The Lakers star has completely redefined longevity in the NBA over his illustrious 22-year NBA career. Case in point, James is averaging 22.8 points per game this year, his age-40 season. That marks another record of Abdul-Jabbar’s that James, who turns 40 on Dec. 30, is going to break.
Before this season, the former Lakers center held the record for most points per game in a season by a player in his 40s… at 14.6. James is similarly tracking toward the all-time record for assists per game from a player in his 40s, though that record currently belongs to John Stockton at 7.7. It’s fitting, then, that the player with the most staying power in all of NBA history has now officially played more professional basketball than anyone else.
Well, at least if you define the amount of basketball played in terms of minutes. Even if you don’t, James is set to pass Abdul-Jabbar in another important longevity stat later this season as well: games played. Tonight marked the 1,517th game of James’ career. Abdul-Jabbar played the second-most in NBA history at 1,560, meaning James will pass him in the record books this season if he manages to stay healthy. To break the all-time record, though, he’d have to play next season and remain relatively healthy as well. Right now, Robert Parish holds a 94-game lead having played 1,611 NBA games.
By that point, James will potentially have broken another one of Abdul-Jabbar’s most important records. In his legendary career, Abdul-Jabbar made 15,837 field goals across 20 seasons. James entered Thursday’s action having made 15,045. While that record is out of reach this season, James would likely break it with a relatively healthy 2025-26 campaign.
Sharing any space in the NBA record books with Abdul-Jabbar is an honor. It’s a testament to the remarkable career James has had that passing him in some significant historical category is now becoming an annual occurrence. It took Abdul-Jabbar nearly 55,000 minutes in the NBA to set those records. By the time he’s done, it will have taken James even longer to break them.
