LeBron James tops Michael Jordan as all-time playoffs scoring leader
Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James passed Michael Jordan for first place on the all-time playoff scoring list with a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:40 left in the third quarter of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday.
The shot gave him 29 points for the game and 5,989 points for his postseason career to edge him past Jordan's mark of 5,987.
James finished with 35 points in the Cavaliers' 135-102 win over the Boston Celtics, which clinched the third straight conference title for the Cavs and James' seventh straight trip to the NBA Finals.
"I've always told you guys, any time I'm linked to any of the greats and even the greatest in Mike, it's an honor," James said Thursday morning of the approaching milestone, as he came into the night needing 28 points to pass Jordan. "It's a tribute to what I've been able to do with this game."
Jordan's record stood for 20 years, as he scored his last playoff points in the Chicago Bulls' Game 6 win over the Utah Jazz in the 1998 NBA Finals.
James, who also ranks in the top 10 in playoff rebounds (seventh), playoff assists (third) and playoff steals (second), did not emphasize the points any more than the other ways in which he impacts the game.
"I'm not a scorer," James said. "I don't want to be labeled as a scorer. I can put the ball in the hoop. I'm a playmaker. I'm a player. Put me on the court and I find ways to be successful. So, when you talk about scorers, we have a lot of great scorers in our league. All-time guys who shot a lot of shots and volume shooters and scored the ball at a high clip. I'm not one of those guys. I'm a guy who always got happy and excited seeing my team successful, seeing my individual teammates be successful and that's how I felt in Game 4 with Kyrie [Irving] doing what he did."
Irving scored 42 points in Game 4 to lead Cleveland to a 3-1 series lead with James having to spend more time on the bench than usual after being whistled for four fouls in the first half for the first time in his career.
Coming into Thursday, James was averaging 28.2 points in his 211 postseason games. James' overall playoff field goal percentage (48.2 percent) and 3-point accuracy (32.7 percent) are in range with Jordan (48.7 percent total, 33.2 percent from 3); however, Jordan averaged 33.4 points in the playoffs.
Jordan played 179 games in his postseason career. When James passed him with his 180th postseason game last spring, he was self-deprecating about the achievement. "That [Jordan] closed out series faster than me," James said with a smile when asked what the mark meant to him.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue was a teammate of Jordan's with the Washington Wizards and said hearing Jordan and James linked these days is inevitable.
"The comparison is always going to be there, they're always going to continue to talk about it, but just showing that you're able to pass Michael Jordan, on this kind of stage and in a playoff magnitude, just means LeBron's been doing a lot of winning," Lue said. "Been advancing, been playing well to get to the playoffs a lot, so a tribute to him and his hard work."
James also described his pursuit of Jordan's impeccable legacy in the sport as a "personal goal of mine" on Thursday. He said the goal is focused on how he will be perceived as an all-time great on Jordan's level when he retires, rather than involving any statistical comparison.
"It has nothing to do with passing the rings, passing the points, passing MVPs," James said. "It's just my personal goal to keep me motivated — that's all."
James (seventh place, 28,787 points) still trails Jordan (fourth place, 32,292 points) on the all-time regular-season scoring list. He will pass him sometime late in the 2018-19 season should he maintain his career average of 27.1 points per game in the regular season.
Source:- http://www.espn.in/nba/story/_/id/19465303/lebron-james-passes-michael-jordan-all-nba-playoffs-scorer
