After LeBron James broke the all-time scoring record in Los Angeles Tuesday night, USC students were ready to crown him as the “GOAT.” Or at least some were.
Yoav Gillath, a sophomore political economics major, said that the event solidified James as the greatest player of all time.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get to see a record like this broken,” Gillath said. “I don’t know if this record will ever be broken again.”
The only people not celebrating this milestone appear to be Michael Jordan fans. Many Jordan fans took to defending their favorite player, as the debate over which player is truly the greatest of all time was reignited.
“Honestly, I hate LeBron,” freshman biological sciences major Jude Kim said. “But you know, congratulations to him.”
Before the game, James was only 36 points away from being the NBA’s leading scorer. Averaging 30 points per game, James fans expected the legend to break the record in Tuesday’s game.
James surpassed the 39-year standing record set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1984 – the same year James was born – in the Tuesday night game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With only 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter, James scored his 36th point of the game and the record-breaking 38,388th of his career that began in Cleveland.
Jack Hallinan, a sophomore journalism major and Cleveland native, was one of the many ecstatic Cleveland fans watching James make history.
“I think that the city is just so tremendously proud of him,” Hallinan said. “Obviously, we wish he did it in a Cavs uniform instead of a Lakers uniform.”
After scoring the record-breaking point, fans erupted and a ceremony commenced mid-game.
While the “GOAT” title is up for debate, James undoubtedly made history last night. The 38-year-old is one of seven players to score over 30,000 career points and is the youngest player in NBA history to do so. Now the king has another NBA jewel to add to his already impressive crown.
“It was one of the greatest moments of my life,” said Bryan Phillips, freshman and self-proclaimed LeBron superfan. “It was just exhilarating.”
Business major Cybelle Calleung thinks the record is well deserved for an “iconic figure in basketball that a lot of people look up to.”
“The fact that he was able to catch up to [the record] during his career is incredible,” Calleung said. “I assume he’s just going to keep going from there. I don’t see him retiring soon.”