Tramel's ScissorTales: Why LeBron James' career ranks as the best in NBA history
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LeBron James leaned down to chat with his sons at halftime of the Thunder-Laker game Tuesday night. The TNT cameras picked up the conversation.
“Right here, huh?” he asked his boys. “Sixteen points. Eight points a quarter?”
LeBron was 16 points shy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time NBA scoring record.
“Go ahead and get it?” he asked. “Go ahead and get it? OK, I’ll get it.”
Then LeBron went and got it, not even needing the fourth quarter. LeBron’s fadeaway jumper over Kenrich Williams with 10 seconds left in the third period gave LeBron 16 points in the quarter and 38,388 for his career.
The Wednesday ScissorTales checks in with OSU basketball transfer John-Michael Wright and chats with Thorpe Award winner Tre’Vius Tomlinson-Hodges. But we start with LeBron James’ historic feat.
Some this week have pitched the idea that LeBron isn’t really a scorer. They meant it as criticism. That he’s not in Michael Jordan’s or Kobe Bryant’s class as a scorer.
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I took it as a salute. That’s how good LeBron is. Scoring is not the strength of his game. Ball distribution and defense and sheer force of will have been his calling cards. Yet still, LeBron has the most points in NBA history.
And that little conversation with his sons offered a glimpse into LeBron. When he really wants to score, he can score. When getting to the basket is his prime directive, he gets to the basket.
In LeBron’s bibliography, there aren’t many 35-point games on 11-of-31 shooting. Against the Thunder on Tuesday night, LeBron scored 38 points on 13-of-20 shooting.
And sure, LeBron’s final climb up Mount Jabbar would have been tougher had Luguentz Dort been activated. But again, I don’t know if the Thunder defensive dynamo could have held down LeBron, who seemed predestined to score.
Good for the Thunder, who won 133-130 in a rousing game with a verdict that took a backseat to the pageantry of the record. Winning was not paramount to everyone in Laker gold, and maybe that’s OK for this one night. Or maybe that’s the way it is every night. I’m not sure.
Hard to place too much blame on LeBron, who has spent two decades dedicated to winning. Doing all the little things, besides scoring, that go into victory. So one night, where points were supreme, seems justified.
This being basketball and this being the 21st century, no sooner had the game ended than LeBron was hit with questions about whether he is the greatest player of all time. Shaquille O’Neal asked him on TNT; reporters asked LeBron in the postgame press conference.
LeBron answered with class, saying it was good “barbershop” talk.
OK, here’s more barbershop talk.
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There are two kinds of “greatest ever.” Greatest ever at one time or for a short time. In other words, peak performance. Jordan in the early ‘90s. Jabbar in the early ‘70s. Wilt Chamberlain in the early ‘60s.
The other greatest ever is the totality of a career. And in that regard, LeBron has no peers.
He’s 38 years old, in his 20th NBA season, and there’s never been anyone with this kind of sustained excellence.
Look at it this way. Dwyane Wade played 16 NBA seasons and averaged 22.0 points a game. Kyrie Irving has played 12 NBA seasons and has averaged 23.3 points a game. LeBron has scored more points than both of them combined.
Jordan played 15 seasons and had a player efficiency rating (PER) above 20 in 14 of those years. LeBron has had a PER above 24 in 19 straight seasons!
Jabbar played 20 seasons. His PER fell below 20 in each of his final three seasons.
Tim Duncan played 19 seasons. His PER finally fell below 20 in his final year, all the way to 16.9.
But LeBron’s PER here in Year 20 is 25.0. He’s averaging 30.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game, with a true-shooting percentage of .590, which is better than his career percentage.
Maybe others (maybe not) have played basketball at a higher level than LeBron played from 2008-13, when he was 23-28 years old. But no one has played basketball at a higher level than LeBron has played over these last 20 years.
When it comes to a career, he’s the greatest of all time.
John-Michael Wright goes from High Point to high times
This time a year ago, John-Michael Wright was between games for the High Point Panthers. Coming off a win over North Carolina-Ashville, headed for a win at Presbyterian.
Last Saturday was a little different.
Wright was wearing Cowboy orange, in front of 9,000 OSU fans at Gallagher Iba-Arena, as he and his new teammates were trying to beat 15th-ranked Texas Christian.
And OSU was in trouble. A 19-point lead had disappeared. TCU led 61-59 with five minutes left in the game.
Wright had no designs on taking things into his own hands. But that’s exactly what he did.
A bullet pass to Kalib Boone for a game-tying dunk. Then three straight buckets – a floater, a 3-pointer, a short bank shot from the side.
Suddenly, OSU led 68-65, then came the play of the day. Mousse Cisse blocked Damion Baugh’s drive, Wright saved the ball by leaping out of bounds and flipping it over his shoulder almost to halfcourt, setting up another Boone dunk.
The Cowboys won 79-73, and Wright knows he’s a long way from High Point.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Wright said of playing at OSU. “Obviously, it’s a lot more difficult, because these teams are highly ranked.”
TCU is one of six Big 12 teams ranked in the top 20. High Point, a Big South school, finished 14-18 a year ago.
“You never really realize the magnitude of the team until after you play,” Wright said. He got to the post-game locker room and thought, “I actually played against a 15-(ranked) team and we won. To be able to play in a big stadium like this, and get the job done, it’s a lot of fun.”
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Coming out of high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Wright had scholarship offers from Marshall, Maryland-Baltimore County, Arkansas State, High Point and Hampton.
He chose High Point and legendary coach Tubby Smith, who won an NCAA championship at Kentucky and led Tulsa to the 1994 Sweet 16.
“I thought out of high school, I could play on this level,” Wright said of the Big 12. “But obviously, I had to go to High Point. I loved every bit of it. High Point treated me well. I learned a lot from coach Tubby Smith. The coaches at High Point made me feel confident enough to play at this level when I decided to get in the portal.”
Big South to Big 12 is a Big Adjustment. Wright started 85 of 86 games in three years at High Point. He averaged 15.7 points a game and shot 34.6 percent from 3-point range.
But Smith retired, and Wright was ready to branch out. Mike Boynton offered a scholarship, though OSU’s fortune with low-major guards has been spotty.
“You don’t know, to be honest,” Boynton said. “And in some ways, everyone. It doesn’t matter if they come from UCLA, it’s the same thing. Our league’s different than any other league in the country. Far and away. If you look at the analytics, it says this league is leaps and bounds ahead of the next-best conference.
“So the adjustment is going to be a big one no matter what.”
But Boynton knew that Smith had coached Wright well. Wright had scored 1,498 High Point points. So Boynton took a chance on Wright’s work ethic and character.
Now Wright has started all 23 OSU games, he’s shooting 36.5 percent from 3-point range and he’s averaging 9.7 points. The 14-9 Cowboys have caught fire and are on the up side of NCAA Tournament projections.
And when the Cowboys were in trouble vs. TCU, Wright delivered.
“Just belief,” Boynton said of Wright rising to the occasion. “A confidence and a courage to live with the results. He was little bit hesitant earlier in the year to do those type of things. Part of it is embracing his role as a secondary scorer. Probably took it too far.”
The Cowboys host Texas Tech on Wednesday night and with a victory can catch at least TCU in the standings.
With point guard Avery Anderson sidelined with a wrist injury, Wright’s value is even greater. This transfer worked.
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Sticking around TCU pays off for Tre'Vius Tomlinson-Hodges
Tre’Vius Tomlinson-Hodges says he doesn’t run from adversity. So he didn’t think transfer portal when Sonny Dykes was hired coach to coach TCU football 14 months ago, in the wake of Gary Patterson’s firing.
“Honestly not,” Tomlinson-Hodges said. “I’m not the type to just run away from what’s to come. I’m all about facing adversity.”
The TCU cornerback liked what he heard from Dykes, remained a Horned Frog and the rest was Big 12 history. TCU not only made the College Football Playoff but won once it got there; the Horned Frogs popped Michigan 51-45 in a wild Fiesta Bowl.
And Tomlinson-Hodges won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s most outstanding defensive back. Tomlinson-Hodges, the nephew of Pro Football Hall of Fame tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, was presented the Thorpe Award on Tuesday night at OKC’s National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
“We ended up going to the championship,” Tomlinson-Hodges said. “I’m thankful we did, no matter the outcome of it.” TCU lost 65-7 to Georgia, a buzzsaw that wasn’t buzzkill for Frog football.
TCU was the first Big 12 team to win a playoff game in the nine-year history of the four-team format.
And while it all started with the foundation laid by Patterson over two decades, Dykes and his new staff gave TCU just the kind of direction the program needed.
“My first idea was to go to that meeting, figure out what they had to say,” said Tomlinson, who at that time had played three seasons with the Frogs, coming from Waco’s Midway High School.
“What they said at that meeting, it meant a lot to me. It was a different type of coaching staff. He was going to make a change to make sure that we wanted to be there. As a whole, we’re very thankful for what they brought in. Can’t thank Coach Dykes enough.”
New TCU coordinator Joe Gillespie implemented a 3-3-5 defense, different from Patterson’s traditional 4-2-5.
The Frogs stormed to a 12-0 regular season, lost in overtime to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship, but still were rewarded with the No. 3 seed and the chance to play unbeaten Michigan in the national semifinals.
“Very satisfying,” Tomlinson-Hodges said of beating the Wolverines “Especially beating a team that wasn’t in our conference. That was the biggest thing. Michigan’s always been a big school, they’ve always had success, always been in playoff games, always had a great coach.”
Tomlinson-Hodges said the new staff made necessary “small changes … It wasn’t the talent at all. For them to come in and do what they did, and for us to finally showcase what we had, is something I was looking forward to since I came to TCU.”
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The List: Thunder high in trade value
Bill Simmons, formerly of ESPN and now with the Ringer, probably was the nation’s best writer on the NBA, before he cut back on the craft. But Simmons got back to his keyboard and produced his semi-annual trade-value rankings – the NBA players with the highest value in a possible trade. Not necessarily the best player, though the two categories can be congruent – his top three players are Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic.
Simmons’ rankings are worth a read. Simmons’ main criteria: salaries matter, age matters, contract length matters (just not nearly as much) and happiness matters (more than ever).
But Simmons, a noted Thunder critic in the past, is bullish on the Oklahoma City franchise. Five OKC players drew mention in his trade-value rankings, out of 91 players on his list. He ranked the top 70, then mentioned 21 others.
Here are the Thunder five, with Simmons’ comments:
Luguentz Dort: Dort is listed as “notable omissions” from the top 70 and honorable mentions, along with rookies Benedict Mathurin of Indiana, Dyson Daniels of New Orleans, Jaden Ivey of Detroit, Keegan Murray of Sacramento; youngsters Herb Jones of New Orleans, Bol Bol of Orlando and Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson of San Antonio; and veterans Deandre Ayton of Phoenix, Bogdan Bogdanovic of Atlanta and Robert Williams III of Boston. Dort was honorable mention in Simmons’ summer trade-value rankings, after the top 64.
No. 51: Santa Clara Williams. Simmons on the rookie wing: “OKC has Williams locked in for $4.3 million, then $4.56 million, then $4.56 million, $4.78 million and $6.58 million, then the rookie extension. He’s 21. Have you watched him lately? He might be Jaylen Brown with Freddy Krueger arms. Just for the record, we’re talking about OKC’s ******* Awesome Jalen Williams, not OKC’s sneaky-good banger Jaylin Williams.”
No. 35 Chet Holmgren: Simmons on the 7-foot-1 Holmgren, who has missed all of what would have been his rookie year, with a foot injury: “What a shame that Chet couldn’t ride shotgun on the SGA/Giddey/Dort/FAJW (Santa Clara) Bandwagon this season. I can’t lie – I'm getting excited for the Thin Towers next year. Poku (Aleksej Pokusevski) becoming a not-awful rotation was 2022’s most shocking NBA development other than (commissioner) Adam Silver getting drunk and renaming every NBA award after famous NBA players.” Holmgren was 29th in the summer trade-value rankings.
No. 34 Josh Giddey: Simmons on Giddey: “A tri-captain with Evan Mobley and Tyrese Haliburton on the under-25 ‘Guys Who Just Seem Like They’d Be Fun to Play With’ team. He’s just adorable. Love the rebounding, love the passing, love the low usage rate, love love love. Gotta be honest – I wanted to put him 15 spots higher and didn’t want you to make fun of me. No, seriously. That’s the only reason. (Sam) Presti’s greatest picks: (James) Harden in 2009, (Russell) Westbrook in 2008, Giddey in 2021, (Serge) Ibaka in 2008, (Steven) Adams in 2013. Finishing last: Mitch McGary.” Giddey was 51st in the summer rankings.
No. 11 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Simmons on SGA: “PG (points per game) by year: 10.8, 19.0, 23.7, 24.5, 30.8. A 31 ppg season happened 49 times before this season; of anyone who did it, only Harden (9.9), Kobe (Bryant, 7.6) and T-Mac (Tracy McGrady, 7.0) averaged fewer than 13 ppg as rookies. Is SGA the most improbable of any of them? Watching him at Clippers games as an extremely promising rookie, it never dawned on me – ever, not once – that we were watching an embryonic 31-5-6 (points, rebounds, assists) super-stud, someone hiding an Earl the Pearl (Monroe)-level herky-jerky scoring arsenal, the rare 2020s guard who averages 10-plus FTA (foul shots) but doesn’t jack 3’s. And he’s only 24. Lingering questions include: Did the Knicks really take Kevin Knox over him? They did. Did Charlotte really flip his draft rights for Miles Bridges and two second-rounders? Yup. Would Presti have done the PG-13 deal without SGA (Paul George was traded to the Clippers for SGA, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round draft picks and two pick swaps)? No way. Would OKC have dealt him for a (Rudy) Gobert-like haul last year if anyone offered? Too late now! When will OKC say, ‘(Screw) it, we have a top-12 guy, let’s go for it!’ Maybe this summer? And can we add this paragraph to the endless Google doc ‘Here’s Why the Clippers are Cursed?’ We can.” SGA was 42nd in the summer rankings.
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Mailbag: OU basketball fans
The Bedlam basketball game of last week, which drew a crowd of some 13,500 after OU offered free admission, citing inclement weather, did not set well with at least one season-ticket holder.
Richard: “I am 64 and have been an OU football season ticket holder for over 40 years and a basketball season-ticket holder for over 25 years. I attend almost all games in both sports. Season-ticket holders seem to be the problem instead of the solution at OU. I'm am referencing the Bedlam game last week that was opened up to free attendance because of ‘the weather’ coming in. While I suspect the weather was a convenient excuse to try to fill the place without saying we have to give away tickets to get people to come, I'm not totally opposed to trying to breathe life into a dying program and fan base. But as I suspected when I heard that declaration of everyone gets in free, there was no mention that actual ticket holders have the rights to their seats. No announcement via social media, radio or TV or at the game. That, of course, leaves us who actually paid for tickets and come to all of the games to have to argue and fuss with people and threaten to get event staff, to get to sit in our actual seats. Once we did get seated, we could not see the first half because the aisles were filled with people standing. Side note, there is no question in my mind this was a very unsafe situation because both seats and aisles were filled, making it a disaster waiting to happen. So when I contacted the OU ticket office to inquire if us season-ticket holders would be getting refunds for that game, seeing as how everyone else got in free, I was told no refund because season tickets were ‘already discounted.’ Huh? I'm not good at the new math, but free and discounted are not the same thing last time I took a business class.”
Tramel: I can’t disagree. The packed Lloyd Noble Center was not a good situation. Reminded me of the scene from “Doctor Zhivago,” when Yuri Zhivago returns from the war front, he finds the family home has been divided into tenements by the Bolsheviks.
It was indeed crowded, and disagreements ensued. Some things don’t get thought through.
It's along the same marketing plan as selling subscriptions for $6.99 a month or whatever, then offering new customers some deal for $1 a month.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: LeBron James' career bests Michael Jordan's for greatest career ever
