The series stars Jason Clarke as Laker legend Jerry West, the team’s general manager for much of the ’80s; John C. Reilly as team owner Jerry Buss; newcomer Quincy Isaiah as Earvin “Magic” Johnson; and former UC-Berkeley basketball player and Harlem Globetrotter Solomon Hughes as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Rumors
Many observers, including myself from time to time, have derided the monotonous aesthetic of Rockets basketball. Critics argue there’s too much dribbling and not enough passing. The whole thing is gimmicky, predictable and tiresome. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey sees some hypocrisy there. “Nobody was mad when Kareem was getting it dozens of times per game,” Morey told ESPN.
Last season, the Bucks were 15-6 through 21 games, but the 18-3 matches the franchise’s best ever start through 21 games with the 1970-71 and 1971-72 teams. That 1971 team, led by Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, also won the title. “I’m really happy to see the Milwaukee franchise doing well and contending,” Abdul-Jabbar told ESPN. “It’s a whole lot of fans here that have really been starving for a dominant team and it seems like they’ve got one now, and I hope they put all the pieces together this year and do a little bit better.”
Here is something that might leave James feeling more grateful: He appears on the verge of adding more accomplishments to a Hall-of-Fame résumé that already includes three NBA championships, three Finals MVPs, four regular-season MVPs, 15 All-Star appearances and nine Finals appearances. He needs 588 more points to pass former Lakers star Kobe Bryant for third place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Should James maintain his season average of 25.7 points per game, he will surpass Bryant’s 33,643 career points in 23 games. Based on that timeline, James would pass Bryant in Brooklyn on Jan. 23. Should he stay mostly healthy and maintain his career scoring average (27.1), James would likely need to play at least two more seasons to top Karl Malone (36,928 points) for second and four more seasons to eclipse Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Justin Kubatko: The @Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James became the fifth player in NBA history to reach 12,000 FGM: 15,837 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; 13,528 – Karl Malone; 12,681 – Wilt Chamberlain; 12,192 – Michael Jordan; 12,006 – James
“I want to be better than Shaq,” Embiid said. “That means I’ve got to win. I mean, if you look at the numbers, I’m up there when it comes to numbers with the best. I think about it. Last year, I averaged 27 [points] and 13 [rebounds]. Shaq, I think he only did it once. That was the MVP year, in 2000, when he was Finals MVP. Because I don’t have a championship on my resume, because I don’t have one or more, people don’t look at it. “A lot of guys don’t do that,” said Embiid, who joined O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players in NBA history to have seasons in which they averaged at least 27.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 blocks; Abdul-Jabbar did it twice, capturing league MVP honors with those numbers in 1974-75.
