How LeBron’s Record-Breaking Performance Shows How He’s Changed As a Player
The difference between LeBron James’ record this week and one of his most iconic performances
On this week especially, it’s funny to recall that there was a time when we doubted LeBron James. He was The Chosen One, as talented as anyone who had ever played basketball, but entering Game Six of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, many thought he couldn’t win, couldn’t get over the hump . . . thought he was nothing but a choke artist. Two summers before, he’d made The Decision to take his talents to South Beach—and instead of not one…not two…not three championships, it appeared that his Heat super team might fall to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row.
You know the story: down three games to two and traveling to Boston, LeBron locked into another gear, stared down the Celtics, and erupted for 45 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists—by any measure one of the most dominant performances of all-time. Yet what did LeBron feel during that game?
“I felt nothing,” he revealed in our series Greatness Code. “I felt absolutely nothing.”
He continued, “I played in Boston so many times during the playoffs, during the regular season, I always felt like this is tough…but for this one time, I went to Boston for this Game Six, and I felt absolutely nothing.”
LeBron said that he barely said a word during the day before and the day of the game. He listened to music, the Wu-Tang Clan, DMX, Jay-Z’s “Reservoir Dogs.”
“That,” LeBron said of his performance that night, “was the result of feeling nothing. I wish I could bottle nothing up, I’ll tell you that.”
I couldn’t help but think of LeBron’s description of that game while watching him set the all-time scoring record on Tuesday night. He did it with a 14-foot fadeaway that fell through the net with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter. The game stopped—literally—while Commissioner Adam Silver and the previous record holder, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, honored LeBron at center court. The PA Announcer declared, “The all-time scoring leader!” and LeBron broke down, hands on his knees, in tears. When the commissioner handed him a microphone, LeBron’s voice cracked.
“I probably can count on my hands how many times I have cried in 20 years, either in happiness or in defeat,” James said after the game. “So that moment was one of them when I kind of teared up a little bit. It was ‘I can’t believe what’s going on’ tears.”
This wasn’t a championship, but it was something different—the basketball version of a lifetime achievement award, yet one more recognition for a man who has won everything else. It was also, surprisingly, touching. To see someone who had been bestowed with impossible expectations as a boy not only meet them, but do so with style and class, would make anybody proud. And for a moment, you could see the totality hit LeBron too.
“I write ‘the man in the arena’ on my shoe every single night, from Theodore Roosevelt,” he said postgame. “Tonight, I actually felt like I was sitting on top of the arena tonight when that shot went in, and the roar from the crowd.”
I love that image, especially how different it is from that Game Six more than a decade ago: as he stepped back to hit the fadeaway Tuesday night, LeBron wasn’t in flow state, wasn’t lost in the depths of competitiveness and peak performance. He was fully present and aware of the history—as if he was in on the secret all along. He was there, watching along with the rest of us, feeling it all.
🎥 Only Kareem Abdul-Jabaar could write about LeBron breaking his scoring record by talking about Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, and Vision Quest.
🐐 I loved this profile of Joe Montana—which in a way is also a profile of the next 30 years of Tom Brady’s life in retirement.
🥒 Your incredible Minor League Baseball logo of the day.
😮 Ahead of the Super Bowl, check out this wild story about the Kansas City Chiefs mascot KC Wolf.
😂 Possibly the funniest video of the year.
