Stephen A. Smith lavished praise on Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James for eclipsing 50,000 career points.
The timeless LeBron James has rewritten the record books so often it’s easy to take his milestones for granted. But this one is different.
On Tuesday night, the 40-year-old Los Angeles Lakers superstar became the NBA’s first-ever 50,000-point man, stacking another unprecedented feat onto a résumé that already foils logic.
Rewriting the debate
The G.O.A.T. debate has been a fixture of basketball discourse for two decades, mainly orbiting James and Michael Jordan. But on this night, as the four-time MVP stretched his legacy past a threshold no player had ever approached, even the most staunch defenders of Jordan’s throne were willing to reassess — including Stephen A. Smith.
“On this particular morning, I’m gonna make some news,” Smith said. “I know — and we all know — I am putting nobody ahead of Michael Jordan, OK? And I stand on it. … But there’s nobody that has been as good for as long as LeBron. Longevity, a sustained level of prestige and excellence — LeBron is the G.O.A.T. in that category.”
Needing just a single point to cross the 50,000 career points threshold, he drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing in the opening minutes against the New Orleans Pelicans. The swish boomed through the arena as the crowd cheered for another volcanic feat in the career of one of the NBA’s greats. James, stone-faced, locked in, simply turned and ran back on defense.
The night ended with the league’s oldest player posting 34 points, eight rebounds, and six assists in a lopsided 136-115 win. The Lakers, surging at the perfect time, have lost just three times in their last 20 outings, slingshotting them to second place in the Western Conference.
James continues stacking milestones, extending his hold as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 41,871 regular-season points and 8,162 in the playoffs.
“It’s a hell of a lot of points,” he said after the game. “And I’m super blessed to be able to put that many points up in the best league in the world with the best players in the world over my career.”
That’s the thing about James’ dominance: it’s not just measured in peaks but in the sheer unbroken stretch of them. This is year 22, and yet his production mirrored his last MVP season in 2012-13. Since turning 40 on Dec. 30, he’s averaging 26.4 points on 54.1 percent shooting (42.3 percent from 3), 8.2 rebounds, and 8.1 assists — numbers strikingly analogous to his Miami Heat prime.
“I feel that Jordan at his best is the greatest [player] that I have ever seen,” Smith said. “But Jordan wasn’t that good for that long. Not this period. This is 22 years. LeBron James won Player of the Month in 2005, and 20 years later, he won Player of the Month [for February] … He’s been absolutely phenomenal [since turning 40 on Dec. 30].”
It’s not just longevity but the sustained elite production. In February, James averaged 29.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 6.9 assists while leading the Lakers to a 10-2 record. It was enough to earn him the Player of the Month honor for the 41st time — an all-time record — in his career.
A milestone unlike any other
James’ 50,000-point milestone is a remarkable triumph of the mind and body. This is uncharted territory — even for a player who has proven nothing is outside his reach. His efficiency remains otherworldly. Against New Orleans, he went 10-for-18 from the floor and 5-for-10 from beyond the arc, the sixth time in seven games he’s shot over 50 percent from the field.
“It’s amazing,” said teammate Luka Doncic, 26, who added 30 points and 15 assists in the Lakers victory Tuesday night. “Watching him do this stuff at this age, it’s just unbelievable. Like, 50,000 points, I can’t even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70,000, you never know.”
Doncic, who has gone over 30 points three times in nine games since being dealt in an unprecedented trade in early February, continues to thrive in shotgun with the ageless James. The two became the first pair of Lakers teammates ever to score 30 apiece while each hitting five or more 3s in the same game.
Despite NBA All-Star Weekend briefly pausing James and Doncic’s repetitions as teammates, the superstar tandem, sharing a 15-year age gap, have steered the Lakers to a 7-2 record, tying the league’s third-best win percentage in that span. Last night’s win pushed L.A. to seven consecutive victories, the franchise’s longest since the 2020-21 season.
“I’ll even go a step further,” Smith expressed. “… I actually think it’s time to not even have the [G.O.A.T.] debate anymore, because that’s how great LeBron James has been for as long as he has been that great. I can stand down and acknowledge that.”
That’s the weight of 50,000 points. It’s a number so absurd, so untouchable, that it forces the basketball world to reconsider everything they thought they knew about greatness.
James has never sought validation. And at this point in his life and career, he is way above that. LeBron stands atop a mountain no player has ever reached, so he doesn’t need to say much. The numbers, the accolades, the sheer gravity of his career spoke loud enough.
The debate may never truly be settled. But after 22 years, decades of buckets, and a milestone so titanic it may never be duplicated, there’s no denying this: James’ greatness is a language of its own. And now, more than ever, the world is finally growing fluent in it.
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