3 LeBron James Records That Will Be Unbreakable
LeBron James isn't done rewriting the NBA's history books, but he's already left a few indelible marks on this sport.
By the time the 11-time All-Star hangs up his sneakers for the final time, he could own a few of the Association's most coveted records. He might pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the league's all-time leading scorer. He might be named MVP three more times and take over as the career leader for the most coveted individual award. Frankly, he might ascend to the top of myriad other leaderboards.
Not all of his many records, however, will be untouchable.
Fortunately, James already has a few that will be completely unbreakable when he retires. His unique talents have made that possible, though he's also benefitted from a certain rule change on this first one.
Youngest to [Insert Point Total Here]
At this point, can we assume James is just going to keep earning every youthful scoring record under the sun? After he became the youngest to 25,000 career points at the beginning of November with a 22-spot against the Philadelphia 76ers, he might already have needed a new belt in order to find the space necessary for another notch.
Who was the youngest to reach four digits in the career scoring column?
James did that at just 19 years, 41 days. Slightly under two years later, he became the youngest to hit 5,000 points. Two more years after that, he broke into the 10,000s, again emerging as the youngest to reach that impressive milestone.
Only 329 players in league history have managed to reach 10,000 by the end of their careers, however long those might have run. James only needed to hit 23 years and 59 days on the planet before throwing down this vicious transition slam with his left hand:
He didn't stop there.
The youngest to 15,000 points? James. The youngest to 20,000 points? James.
Now, he's the youngest to 25,000 points, becoming the 20th player in league history to reach that milestone with any number of years to their name. And if you look at the ages all 20 of them were at when breaking into the club, it's abundantly clear just how ridiculous the current star's relative youth remains:
"It just means I've played with a lot of great teammates, a lot of great coaches," the four-time MVP explained after the 107-100 victory over Philly, per the USA Today. "I've been around some great groups and I've been able to reap the benefits. It's a cool thing. I've got more work to do, but it's pretty cool to see where you're able to kind of stop and look at it."
Those are big factors, though there's far more that goes into the unbreakable status of these records.
Here's where the difference between "youngest" and "quickest" is crucial, especially since the Elias Sports Bureau revealed, via ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin, that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (889 games), Michael Jordan (782) and Wilt Chamberlain (691) hit the newest milestone in fewer appearances than James (915).
The ship has sailed if the current Cavalier is hoping to surpass previous legends as the fastest to round numbers yet to come. But he's still likely to supplant Kobe Bryant (34 years, 104 days) as the youngest to 30,000 points.
Even if we assume he averages "only" 25 points from this point forward—keep in mind he's never averaged that few in any season since his rookie go-round—he needs another 196 games to reach that next landmark. Unless it takes him the remainder of this campaign and each of the next two to suit up that many times, he'll beat Bryant with room to spare.
Similarly, if he's to move past Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time scoring leader, he'll likely do so before his 42nd birthday. The big man scored his 38,387th point seven days after his own celebration, but it's tough to see James declining significantly enough that he'd need to hang around so long.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old had the luxury of entering the league at a ridiculously young age—only 11 players in NBA history debuted sooner—and then staying remarkably healthy up through the present. Somehow, he'd never missed double-digit games in a single season until playing in just 69 contests during the 2014-15 campaign.
That combination, along with his jaw-dropping talent, has boosted him to the top of these age hierarchies. He'll remain there, as well.
Given the current illegality of going prep-to-pro, the transcendent talents who actually have a chance to reach 25,000 career points in such quick fashion are guaranteed to be older when they first take part in official action. Unless that rule changes before the next James comes along, his records here will be untouchable.
When a player has been as good as he's been for as long as he's stayed almost completely healthy, there's no margin for error.
Pacing the Team
As the Golden State Warriors closed out Game 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals to end their 40-year title drought in dominant fashion, James finished up yet another Herculean effort, even if his single-handed contributions weren't enough to overcome the absences of Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving against a superior squad. Albeit in inefficient fashion, he recorded 32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists that night, pacing the Cavs in each of those three major categories and earning what we'll call the team trifecta.
Somehow, it was the sixth time during the 2015 postseason he'd accomplished such a feat:
| May 10 | Chicago Bulls | Game 4 | 25 | 14 | 8 |
| May 12 | Chicago Bulls | Game 5 | 38 | 12 | 6 |
| May 24 | Atlanta Hawks | Game 3 | 37 | 18 | 13 |
| June 7 | Golden State Warriors | Game 2 | 39 | 16 | 11 |
| June 14 | Golden State Warriors | Game 5 | 40 | 14 | 11 |
| June 16 | Golden State Warriors | Game 6 | 32 | 18 | 9 |
"Over his postseason career, he's been the outright leader in points, boards and assists on 37 different occasions," Joe Gabriele wrote about James for NBA.com this August while looking back at Cleveland's runner-up season, "24 more than the next-highest player on the list, Larry Bird (13)."
Just stop and think about that.
Larry Bird has the second-most outright team trifectas in NBA postseason history, and James nearly reached half his career mark in a single run through the playoffs. There's dominance, there's historic excellence and then there's whatever ridiculousness that is.
Plus, it's not like the team trifecta is something every superstar achieves at least once during the playoffs. Throughout the entire 2015 postseason, the following performances were the only ones that managed to qualify, though Evan Turner came close to joining the club and was ultimately denied by the "outright" qualification:
| Blake Griffin | April 24 | San Antonio Spurs | 14 | 10 | 5 |
| Blake Griffin | May 4 | Houston Rockets | 26 | 14 | 13 |
| Marc Gasol | May 13 | Golden State Warriors | 18 | 12 | 6 |
That's it.
Blake Griffin was the only other player to record two such performances, and one came with rather unimpressive numbers in a shellacking at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs. Stephen Curry couldn't gain entry into the exclusive club. Nor could James Harden, or any of the other stars taking to basketball's biggest stages.
Leading a team in points, rebounds and assists is obviously a difficult feat, and the trouble stems from having to make an impact in so many different facets of the game. You not only must be a skilled enough player to control the ball on nearly every possession, but also boast enough toughness to crash the boards successfully on a consistent basis.
There are plenty of ways to highlight James' versatility, but this may be the most staggering example. Not just that he single-handedly had double the team trifectas that were produced by the rest of the 2015 postseason field, but that he's nearly tripled Bird's second-place career total and will surely keep adding to his own high-water mark.
Ruler of the 25/6/6/1 Club
If that isn't the best way to showcase James' ability to contribute in so many ways, this is.
Right now, the future Hall of Famer is on pace to put together his 12th qualified season averaging at least 25 points, six rebounds, six assists and one steal. He's only missed out on joining the club during his rookie campaign, and there's no guarantee he'll start slowing down any time soon, given his everlasting importance toward the Cleveland cause.
In other words, throw out his teenage years, and he's always managed to post these marks.
How rare is that? Well, just think about the most hyperbolic synonym for "rare" your thesaurus can come up with, then try to get even more extreme:
You can take the only other five players to post such a season—Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook, Rick Barry and Clyde Drexler—and add their number of qualified years up. It would still be less than James' individual count. By himself, he's posted more 25/6/6/1 seasons than everyone else in NBA history, combined.
And who's going to catch him?
Westbrook is on pace to post his second such season after MVP-level exploits in 2014-15 gave him his first, but think about what he'd have to do in order to reach even 11. He'd need to average at least 25 points, six rebounds, six assists and a steal every single go-round through his age-36 season. Good luck with that, and we're still falsely assuming James' total doesn't grow to 12 or higher.
No other active player is on the list.
In fact, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade are the only ones in the top 10 for the most individual games with 25/6/6/1, and neither is within striking distance. No one is, for that matter:
That's some serious separation, and the towering nature of James' resume only grows more extreme when we narrow the candidates down to active players who have recorded at least one qualified outing since the start of the 2014-15 campaign:
James' total will only keep rising, even if that doesn't help him build a bigger gap.
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Westbrook (30 games) and Harden (29) have actually been slightly ahead of the Cavalier star (24). But that's irrelevant here, since James has quite the cushion and is still racking up relevant performances at a much higher rate than his closest competitors.
The chances of anyone challenging his mark remain just about microscopic.
Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com and are current heading into Nov. 11's games.
Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @fromal09.
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