LeBron James came into Tuesday’s Lakers matchup against the Thunder 36 points away from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record and the latter looked pissed.
Everyone in Los Angeles was looking for history on Tuesday night as the Lakers hosted the Thunder. No, it wasn’t a big game for the team in the context of the 2022-23 season. Instead, it was LeBron James coming into the night chasing history.
Coming into the matchup, the Lakers superstar and four-time NBA champion was just 36 points away from passing another LA legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for the No. 1 spot on the list of NBA all-time scoring leaders.
But apparently, that wasn’t what the current all-time scoring champion wanted to see, at least based on the look he was seen giving when the cameras panned to him.
After a LeBron bucket, the TNT cameras moved to Abdul-Jabbar sitting courtside and he looked, well, let’s just say less than pleased at his record on the verge of falling.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar looked downright pissed LeBron James was about to break his scoring record
That is not the face of a man who is happy to see history be made at his own expense.
Of course, there’s a good chance that Abdul-Jabbar was simply watching on and not thinking anything more of it, not feeling the need to truly react to every bucket. And then his resting face just happened to make him look pissed off at the ordeal. That’s probably the reality of the situation.
However, the optics were too funny to ignore. Let’s be honest, though — who would really want to see one of the league’s most incredible records be broken right in front of them? That’s just human nature, even if he does show appreciation and love to James when the latter does break the record.