LeBron James overtakes Magic Johnson on NBA's all-time assists list / News - Basketnews.com

LeBron James has climbed up the leaderboard, surpassing Magic Johnson for 6th place on the NBA's career assists list.

Credit: Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty Images Credit Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty Images

LeBron James overtook Los Angeles Lakers legend and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson for sixth place on the NBA's all-time assists list on Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Earvin Magic Johnson

Position:PGAge:63Height:206 cmWeight:100 kgBirth place:United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

James jumped into sixth place with his ninth assist of the game with 8:41 remaining in the fourth quarter, finding Anthony Davis for a 3-pointer on the right wing that gave Los Angeles a 112-108 lead. He finished with 11 assists in the Lakers' signature win of the season.

James has disked out 10,142 dimes for his career, while Magic stands behind him at 10,141.

"To know that I'm in the conversation or about to get to a point that I'm breaking a record that he set for this franchise - and I'm not comparing myself to Magic with this franchise, what he did, sheesh," James told ESPN this week when asked about the accomplishment he was approaching.

"Him, [James] Worthy, Kobe [Bryant], Shaq [O'Neal], those guys are synonymous with this franchise. But it's just pretty cool, always, when I'm able to see my name with some of the greats that have played this game."

"It means a lot, obviously," James said after the game vs. Milwaukee. "The way Magic approached the game, it was very infectious. His teammates loved playing with him because of the joy he played with and the ability to pass the ball and get other guys involved. He was always excited about seeing his teammates be great. I always admired that in him.

"Listen, when you talk about just one-name guys when you're talking about sports, you got Ali, Jordan, Magic. Bird," James told ESPN. "Those names are just synonymous with sports. Montana. Like, you know who we're talking about."

Johnson served as president of basketball operations for the Lakers when James signed with the team as a free agent in the summer of 2018. After a difficult 2018-19 season, in which the Lakers finished 10th in the Western Conference despite adding James to a group of young talent, Johnson abruptly resigned before the season finale.

LeBron James

MIN:35.44PTS:25.93 (51.15%)REB:8.53As:6.6ST:1.2BL:0.67TO:3.33GM:15ProfileNBA2022/2023

James now trails only John Stockton (15,806), Jason Kidd (12,091), Chris Paul (11,071), Steve Nash (10,335) and Mark Jackson (10,334) on the NBA’s career assists leaderboard.

Throughout his career, LeBron has embraced the title of playmaker more than he has the label of scorer, even though he is elite in both aspects of the game.

One of the biggest storylines entering the 2022-23 season was the countdown to when LeBron would pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Entering Friday’s game, LeBron needs 964 points to pass Kareem.

Back in October, LeBron passed Karl Malone for the most 20-plus point games in NBA history; he reposted the NBA's leaderboard graphic, with this caption: "Not bad for a pass first guy!"

When looking at LeBron’s numbers, he has assisted 166 total teammates over the course of his NBA career, but none more than Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who was the recipient of 785 assists from LeBron during their eight seasons as teammates in both Cleveland (seven seasons) and Miami.

When it comes to the scale of playmaking and scoring, Magic leaned heavily on the passing side. As the orchestrator of the Showtime Lakers, Magic's combination of size, skill, showmanship and unselfishness propelled Los Angeles to five titles in his 13 seasons in the league.

Magic finished his career with averages of 19.5 points and 11.2 assists per game. He never averaged more than 24 points in a single season, but had six seasons in which he averaged over a dozen dimes a game.

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