LeBron James has passed Michael Jordan to become the all-time leading playoff scorer, leaping past him in Game 5 against the Boston Celtics on Thursday. James, who was 27 points behind Jordan coming into the game, went ahead of Jordan in the third quarter with a three-pointer from the left wing and now sits at 5,994 points in his postseason career.
LeBron James passes Michael Jordan to become the all-time leading playoffs scorer
No NBA player has ever scored more points in the playoffs than LeBron James.
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Jordan, who has 5,987 career playoff points, reached that figure in 33 fewer playoff games. However, James passes Jordan with about 170 fewer made field goals thanks to his three-point shooting, a skill that Jordan never really mastered in an era much different from today’s.
Whether James has or will pass Jordan as the best player of all time is a debate that will rage on regardless of this event. Clearly, Jordan could have set a much higher target for James without his baseball hiatus and his early retirement, whereas the Cavaliers star makes the playoffs ever single year without any signs of slowing down. This upcoming NBA Finals will be James’ seventh straight appearance, though he only has three NBA titles to show for it. Jordan, of course, won all six of his Finals appearances.
James, for what it’s worth, downplayed the stat.
“Anytime I’m linked to any of the greats, even the greatest, in Mike, it’s an honor,” James said at Cavaliers shootaround on Thursday. “I’m not a scorer and I don’t want to be labeled as a scorer. I can put the ball in the hoop but I’m a playmaker. Put me on the court and I’ll find ways to be successful.”
Clearly, James is one of the best passers that the game has ever seen, and his numbers and the way he plays the game reflect that. Still, that’s a bit of a simplification: James does average 28.2 points per game in the postseason, fifth-most in NBA history.
“When you talk about scorers, you’ve got a lot of great scorers in our league, all time guys who shot a lot of shots, volume shooters, score the ball at a high clip,” James explained. “I’m not one of those guys. I’m a guy who got happy and excited seeing my team successful and seeing my individual teammates successful.”
James sees himself as a passer as much as a scorer, which does serve to distinguish him from players who mostly only scored. We won’t ever define James solely as a scorer ... but he is absolutely a scorer in the sense that he can do it from all areas and extremely efficiently.
It may be a long time until we see someone come close to breaking this record, though. There’s no end in sight for the number of times James can keep making it to the Finals, and he’ll be constantly adding to his total the whole way there over the coming postseasons.
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