LeBron James passes Abdul-Jabbar as NBA all-time leading scorer amid Lakers chaos

LeBron James

is already basketball history after becoming the most prolific scorer in NBA history, beating the record held by

for 39 years and long considered unattainable.

'King James' rose to the top by adding his 36th point with 10 seconds remaining to close the third quarter against the

, who ended up winning the game 133-130.

The loss continues to keep the Lakers out of the playoffs but it did not overshadow James' great night, who finished with 38 points and raised the record of his two-decade career to 38,390 points, above the 38,387 accumulated by the legendary Abdul-Jabbar .

An eternal record in a tiny daily life: at the same time, the Los Angeles Lakers rush through the last days of the market looking for how to improve a team that barely maintains some hope.

The last setback came this Sunday when

the best player with a transfer sign, was transferred to the Dallas Mavericks.

The Lakers were seen as favorites, LeBron was seen as such a favorite that, when it became known that Irving wanted to leave Brooklyn, he published a tweet anticipating what has not happened.

When it was announced that the point guard would be

's teammate and not his, LeBron picked up the phone again to cover up his disappointment with a bit of irony.

"Maybe it's me."

Had they succeeded, the Lakers would have reunited, even in a rickety set, LeBron with the best interior partner he has ever had -Anthony Davis- and the exterior with whom he has best fitted -Kyrie.

Of course Kyrie would not have been a guarantee of anything.

He already broke off his relationship with James without warning in Cleveland;

he planted the Celtics after swearing undying love to them;

and the partnership with his friend Kevin Durant on the Nets has been

(anti-Semitic content, anti-vaccine theories, flea market spirituality) than by the immense talent he possessed.

Of course, Kyrie Irving is not a guarantee of anything.

The player who decided the 2016 Finals with a three-pointer against

seems today as capable of turning a team into a candidate for the ring as he is to blow it up from within.

As he already did in Cleveland, in Boston or in Brooklyn.

But he seemed like the best option for these Lakers, and that says enough about the set in which LeBron James will make history this week.

Having reached the last third of the season, the Angelenos are 13th in the West with a balance of 25-29.

It is being the tonic, rather than the exception, in LeBron James's time with the Lakers.

In the first, the project was still in its infancy, waiting for that second star who, it soon became known, would be Davis.

And in the last two, injuries and poorly handled emergencies have been cornering the team towards that nothing in which it is today: far from being a candidate and with very little room for maneuver.

The mythical player of the Lakers Kareem Andul Jabbar.

"Breaking records or beating legends while we are losing has never been in my DNA," he declared a few weeks ago to ESPN, in one of the darts he has thrown at the franchise board.

"You already know what the hell would have to be happening," he added later in

, impatient with the defeats and the lack of movement.

James was just as responsible for the signing of Anthony Davis, who elevated the team, as he was for Russell Westbrook, who has sunk it.

And at the same time it is the main reason why, despite the bad game, the scarce squad, and the fact that they may have to continue with what they have on, the Lakers' chances of entering the playoffs are not completely buried.

At 38 years old, in his 20th season in the NBA, LeBron James is still a star.

At an age and with a mileage (almost 65,000 minutes between the regular season and the playoffs) that would justify any decline, he continues to push his team up.

Although in the case of the Lakers the ceiling is so low that it barely gives a glimpse of the playoffs for the title.

It's tempting to think that the Angelenos are wasting one of LeBron's last great seasons, even if the end is not yet in sight.

LeBron James is

He is one of the players who scores the most in the restricted zone, with the extra wear and tear that he entails (behind only Antetokounmpo and Zion Williamson, also physical wonders, but 10 and 16 years younger respectively).

That he has surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record is a prodigy of talent and durability.

It would not have been possible without a privileged physique, but also not without a talent -intelligence, vision, ability- that should have cleared up the prejudices he faced in his early days.

That it happened in the middle of another disastrous season for the Lakers is an accident.

A misfortune for which he is both responsible and one of the few ways of salvation.

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