3 Reasons why only LeBron James can break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record

#3 The modern game

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The modern style of play in the NBA de-emphasizes what allowed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to accrue 38,387 points. During Jabbar’s brilliant career, the center position on the court was a dominant scoring position. With most centers 6’10 and taller (Jabbar was 7’2), a good center meant high percentage scoring. In half court sets, the plan was to isolate the center in the post to use their size to dominate with post moves, turnaround jumpers, and dunks.

The modern era is different. General managers want players 6’6 to 6’11 with great ball handling skills. The game is played more on the perimeter than it is inside and even the mid-range game is limited in use.

Teams also value ball movement and making the extra pass hoping to shift a defense looking for the best shot. Great players will always stand out no matter what style, but teams are not force feeding their star scorer in isolated plays like they used to.

A strong example of this is Kevin Durant. In his 12th season, he has a career scoring average of 27.2 per game. He currently plays for the Golden State Warriors who have greats like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala, who was once a franchise player for Philadelphia.

Durant’s numbers stand out putting him in the conversation for league MVP. Durant does average 6.2 assists per game this season, the highest assist average of his career. The best teams involve every player on the floor so passing skills are at a premium too.

Also, since the 2007 season when the Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to help Paul Pierce, the blueprint for teams trying to win is to create a triumvirate of stars and build around them.

Boston appeared in two NBA Finals winning once with this format. The Miami Heat followed the pattern when they added LeBron James and Chris Bosh in the summer of 2010. They won two of four NBA Finals appearances from 2011 to 2014.

The Cleveland Cavaliers did the same thing bringing LeBron James back via free agency in the summer of 2014 and trading for Kevin Love to help Kyrie Irving. The Cavaliers won one NBA Finals in the last four years.

The Cavaliers' opponent in those four finals was Golden State. Warriors had Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry but added Kevin Durant via free agency, in the summer of 2016. This formula usually means the star players have to give up personal stats to work within the team framework. It's not just championship teams doing this. The OKC Thunder had Russell Westbrook, George Paul and Carmelo Anthony last year.

With the style of play, in the NBA requiring every player on the floor to shoot more, more players will score and the rule changes lately have been slanted in favor of the offense. The best players will still standout they always do. However, there is less reliance on any individual star than in the past.

In the future, the scoring mark that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set will be an extremely difficult career accomplishment to achieve. At age 33, LeBron James has the best chance at surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as the NBA's all time scorer, but whether its Jabbar or James the old or new record will stand for a very long time.