It was still a few months before Karim Abdu-Jabbar broke the NBA career total score record, while Sir Mark Eaton of Utah had begun to calculate the data, and he was very worried about himself.
Eaton believes that Jabbar will break the record in Las Vegas (very strange) between the Lakers and jazz on May 4, 1984, and face Jabbar, who is devoted to pursuing great achievements in history, who will defend him?
“I don’t want to be a background board!” Eaton told his friend Swain Nat who played for the Lakers that season that Nat recalled the conversation in an interview recently.
From the emergence of the Bucks to becoming the indifferent captain of the Lakers, Jabbar created history with his own steps and hooks in 15 seasons, and no one could stop him from moving forward, including the 7-foot-4-inch capping master Eaton (died in 2021).
However, in recent weeks, the Lakers’s LeBlanc James started an unstoppable march towards greatness, igniting the fans’ passion, ignoring all defense, and getting closer and closer to the record that Jabbar had been regarded as unshakable.
Jabbar: I never regard records as personal achievements, but as human achievements…… A record was broken and everyone was the winner, so if James broke my record, I would cheer for him.
The teammates all said that in the eyes of 75-year-old Jabal, those who overtook Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring record nearly 39 years ago, it was just a small thing that distracted him in the ending stage of the 1983-84 regular season. What the Lakers want is to win another championship.
“He doesn’t like to talk about himself,” said Mickey Kupchak, who had been a teammate with him for five years. He entered the management of the Lakers in 1986. “I think he probably only hopes that this matter will pass quickly.”
But one player especially wants to talk about this record, which is Magic Johnson, the Lakers’ All-Star guard.
According to defender Byron Scott, the magician told his teammates like this: “I want to send assists. I must pass the ball to the captain and let him break the record.”
Nat, 73, was a substitute for Jabbar at that time. He joked that he tried to help Jabbar in his own way during the training before the match on April 5.
“I just let him score on my head,” Nat said seriously. “I will pat him on the ass and say, ‘good shot, Karim. ‘Either tell him the angle of the hook wrist is bigger. I just want to make him more excited.”
Because the jazz boss wanted to build a fan base in Las Vegas, the Jazz played 11 home games in Las Vegas that season. However, although jazz was strong (later reaching the semi-finals in the West), they failed to attract the attention of potential fans from slot machines to Adrien-Dantley in Thomas Mark Center, on Ricky Green and Darrell Griffith.
However, in the match against the Lakers in April, they poured into 18389 spectators at home in Las Vegas-you know, since Jazz moved out of New Orleans before 1979-80 season, jazz “home court” has the largest number of seats. Of course, jazz would not imagine that these people were coming for them. After all, history was on stage.
“I don’t think anyone will think he has the ability to stop him from scoring,” Dantley said. “No one can stop the strongest weapon in the basketball court.”
According to the New York Times at that time, the audience stood up and drank for Jabbar for 45 seconds before the match. Jabbar needed 22 points to break Chamberlain’s 31419-point career score record. He greeted the audience with his thumbs up in both hands, and then he put himself into a familiar job-winning another victory for the Lakers.
He scored 16 points in the first half. But even if the Lakers had a big lead in the third quarter, Jabbar was still unwilling to force his hand and kept passing the ball when he was bag clip. A 12-foot jumper on the sideline made him score 18 points. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the score difference had been so huge that Jazz coach Frank Leyden replaced the main force to save strength for the playoffs.
But Jabbar was only one step away from breaking the record. The Lakers changed him back. After woxi assisted him to finish the dunk, he tied Chamberlain. The next assist must belong to the magician, and when he faced the attack and passed it to the substitute Bob McAdoo, his teammates shouted at him and asked him to return it to the magician.
“The Magician is almost going to grab the ball,” Scott recalled with a smile.
The man who was defending the magician was Jazz rookie defender Bob Hanson. He made an abnormal decision to give the magician some space and let him pass the ball to Jabbar on the right.
“I don’t want to get in the way in the historical moment,” Hanson said.
His teammates didn’t think so. Eaton and Green tried to bag clip 7-foot-2-inch Jabal, but he carried the ball, turned to the right, and then turned to the left to face Eaton’s kickoff hook, which was the last scene Eaton wanted to see. When the ball fell into rim, the Lakers veteran live broadcaster Chick-H＆E was in high spirits.
“The new king of scoring has been on his throne,” H＆E said in the live broadcast when his teammates hugged Jabbar one after another. “I can’t believe what this man has achieved. To be honest, I believe this record will not be broken again.”
When journalists, photographers and VIPs on the scene surrounded Jabal with a brain, Hansen struggled through the crowd with the ball and found him near the midfield.
“I said, ‘Here you are, big man. Do you want to keep this ball? ‘And he said,’ of course! Thank you, little man, ‘”said Hanson, 6 feet 6 inches tall. “Then he patted me on the head.”
Jabbar greeted the crowd, thanked his teammates and embraced his parents Cora and El alsindo.
“His father, Mr. alcindo, is old-fashioned,” Scott said. “He used to work as a policeman in New York, so he was very tough. That might be the first time I saw him hug Karim. It can be seen that his face is proud, and his mother is also very proud.”
Jabbar was later replaced by Kupchak.
“It’s time to clean up the battlefield,” said Kupchak, 68 years old, who is the general manager of Charlotte Hornets and president of basketball operations. “That’s my first moment.”
Chamberlain did not attend, but he came to the scene of the Lakers at home to the King of Kansas City the next day and attended the celebration ceremony.
In Las Vegas, after Jabbar broke the record, the visiting team’s dressing room was crowded with the media, and Scott hurried away.
Although losing that night was not pleasant, many jazz players were still proud of witnessing a record that no one broke for decades and playing a tiny role in the history of basketball.
“Competing with such a legend really makes me cherish it a little bit,” said Searle Bailey, a power forward who has played for many years in jazz.
Bailey has a particularly cordial affection for Jabbar. Earlier that season, he was still a rookie. Because he was accidentally scratched by wossey, he put on an eye mask in the second half of the game against the Lakers. Jabbar pulled him aside and showed him his goggles.
“Young man, you have to buy one like this,” Bailey recalled that Jabbar told him like this. “I fell in love with it after trying it. It really works. He has always been very friendly to me.”
Bailey has been wearing goggles recommended by Jabbar since then.
When Jabbar retired in 1989 and ended his 20-year six-Crown career, his total score was so high, his talent was so unique, and his career was so long, few people believe that his record will be broken.
But about eight months after Jabbar set a record for jazz, another thing happened: LeBlanc James was born.
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(Text/kewell)
Never existed before! James crowned the king of Historical Scores