All LeBron James needed to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most made field goals in NBA history was three makes against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday. The Los Angeles Lakers star got that pretty early into the ball game. Late in the first quarter, James backed down Zeke Nnaji in the post before hitting a signature turnaround fade to secure another spot in the record books.
It is easy to forget now but that shot was not always a regular part of the arsenal for LeBron. It was one of the several moves of his post game that were mastered with Hakeem Olajuwon in response to criticism about it being an underdeveloped aspect of his offense. Those were heard loud and clear in 2011 by James.
LeBron said it himself in the postgame interview that followed the 120-113 loss to the Nuggets. The all-time great was asked if he remembered when that shot became 'a real weapon' for him. The response was straightforward.
"Yeah, losing the Finals to Dallas and playing like s***," James said. "... Everything in the post, going to see Hakeem, putting [in] that work, ... continued to dial in on that throughout the rest of my career."
Losing the 2011 NBA Finals helped remold LeBron James
One of the reasons the San Antonio Spurs managed to slow down James in the 2007 NBA Finals was just how unrefined his offensive game was. So much of his scoring still relied on using his unrivaled athleticism to get to the rim.
The Dallas Mavericks similarly tried to dictate where James would get his offense from in 2011. They were content with letting his teammates win the series. They were not going to allow LeBron to play his brand of basketball, though.
That marked the shift in his career when James stopped letting defenses dictate what he was going to do. The rest of the story should be known to all from there. LeBron became a champion, one-man army, and an all-time great. Failure proved to be a great teacher.
Adding the post game allowed James to find the aspect of his offense that his older self has relied on more and more throughout the years. All the greats have found ways to extend their prime past the peak of their athleticism. LeBron has been no different.
Well, perhaps he has, in the sense of that prime going longer than anyone could have anticipated. James deserves all the respect owed for constantly evolving his game with every shift the game of basketball has thrown at him during that time.
His record-breaking bucket serves as just another reminder of how far James has truly come since being a ringless target of nonstop scrutiny from all sources.