Photo: Twitter
Just days after passing Alvin Robertson to enter the top 10 of the NBA’s all-time career steals leaderboard, LeBron James moved up a rung on the assist ladder. With his seventh assist in Sunday’s loss to the Grizzlies, James racked up No. 9,888 for his career, passing Oscar Robertson for seventh place in the all-time rankings.
Driving left-to-right along the baseline, James converged with teammate Wayne Ellington in the right corner, walling off two defenders and dropping the ball off right at the end of Ellington’s looping cut. The catch-and-shoot 3 swished through with 8:50 on the clock.
Magic Johnson sits sixth, at 10,141. With LeBron averaging 6.6 assists, that remains in reach this season, roughly 38 games away with 41 still to play.
Aside from passing Robertson on the all-time assists list, James also added to another statistic he has a firm grip of. He finished with 25 points against Memphis, marking his 11th straight game with 25 or more points. That continued his record of such games by a player 36 years or older. Michael Jordan ranks second on that list (seven games from Jan. 21-Feb. 1, 2002), followed by Karl Malone (six games; Feb. 6-21, 2000), LeBron James (five games, Feb. 4-12, 2021) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (five games, March 2-10, 1984).
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
