WITNESSing Greatness: LeBron Passes Mark Jackson; More

We continue to witness the greatness of LeBron James even as the team goes through drama.

A roller coaster two weeks saw the Cleveland Cavaliers hammered by the Golden State Warriors and the team change coaches with all eyes on LeBron James once again. Along the way, the King still found time to move into the career spot of Mark Jackson while he closes in on more all-time greats.

A new offense was installed recently by the Cavs’ new head coach Tyronn Lue who replaced David Blatt. This could be a good move for the team but it appears that they are still finding their way into the offense. LeBron’s numbers appear to be as solid as ever with the small sample size of three games under his belt with Lue at the helm.

LeBron has been on a tear in the assists department of late with a per game average of 10.0 assists (12, 9, 9 and 9) the past four games. If he keeps this up ‘til the end of the season, he’ll bring his average back to his career average of 7.0 assists a game.

During a five game stretch beginning with the game against the San Antonio Spurs (1/14) to the game against the Los Angeles Clippers (1/21), James only averaged 19.2 points and 5.0 rebounds a game. His assists however, were up to 6.8 but got even better the past three games which included that Clippers blowout win.

In terms of his historic accomplishments, LeBron passed only one legend in Mark Jackson the past two weeks but is about to surpass several others’ career numbers in the next few games.

• Steals – James had a very slow two weeks in the steals department, accumulating a total of just two steals in five games from the same stretch against the Spurs, Rockets, Warriors, Nets, and Clippers. He tied Mark Jackson (1,608) when the Cavs faced the Brooklyn Nets (1/20). James is currently in 29th place (1,611) in the all-time steals department and is only six steals away from moving past Rod Strickland (1,616 and 28th overall). From there, he’ll be within striking distance of Eddie Jones (1,620) and Hersey Hawkins (1,622).

With 25,985 career points, LeBron is only 15 points away from the 26,000 point club.

In the following categories, LeBron is inching closer to a few more of the NBA’s all-time greats and he will be achieving another statistical milestone of his own as well.

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• Scoring – With 25,985 career points, LeBron is only 15 points away from the 26,000 point club. Only 16 players are in that elite club and he will get there either in the next game against the struggling Phoenix Suns (1/28) or in the next game versus the dangerous Detroit Pistons (1/30). Additionally, James is now trailing Kevin Garnett (26,071) by a less than a hundred points (82 to be exact) for 16th place in the all-time list. That’s just four games averaging 20.5 points. Garnett is still playing but with his 3.9 points per game average, it’s likely that James will pass him in the succeeding five games barring a career night from the Minnesota legend.
• Assists – Due to his stellar performance the past few games in assists, James (6,574) is now only 3 assists shy of overtaking former Dallas Mavericks star Derek Harper (6,577). When he does that, James will be in the top 20 in the all-time career assists list. More importantly, he will once more join the great Oscar Robertson in another exclusive list in which only the two of them are members. More about that next week.
• Three-Pt Field Goals Made – James (34th place/1,304) is only two three-pointers away from passing former New York Knicks shooting guard Allan Houston (33rd/1,305) in the all-time career three-point field goals made category. He will most likely accomplish the feat in the next game.
• Field Goals Made – LeBron is about to move ahead of another Hall-of-Fame player in the field goals made department. Moses Malone (9,435) is only 78 field goals ahead of James (9,358). By averaging 9.5 field goals per game, he will pass the legend in nine or ten games.

There you have it! Not much noise career-wise for the King the past few games but the next ones will be very interesting as he is set to enter into more elite status with the legends once again.

Stay tuned for more career accomplishments during the 2015-16 season from King James via KingJamesGospel.com’s WITNESSing Greatness.