LeBron James Makes A Real Point When He Says Records Matter Less In A Losing Effort

On Saturday, LeBron James moved within 36 points of breaking the NBA career scoring record in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 131-126 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. He has every chance of finishing the job in one of two home games this week, and when he does he will receive an extended standing ovation and prolonged recognition from the home crowd. If the achievement coincides with a win, the mood will be merrier, but the Lakers aren’t having a very good season and James will have some mixed emotions about his achievement either way.

Watching the unfolding of James’ historical season reminds me of a book I wrote in 2011 called Greatness: The 16 Characteristics of True Champions. My thesis in the book, which covered the achievements of some of the greatest and most iconic athletes of modern times, was that greatness should be understood as a how, not a what—as a way of practicing and commitment to improving rather than a finite set of accomplishments.

I wrote: “There is no debate as whether or not Kareem Abdul Jabbar was the highest scorer ever in the NBA because the number 38,287 doesn’t lie. And no one can object to the fact that the 1972 Miami Dolphins hold the only perfect season in NFL history. Those are facts that aren’t subject to interpretation.” But I went on in the opening chapter to question if either of those records would ever be topped.

Honestly, I didn’t believe in 2011 that James would someday emerge as the biggest threat to Jabbar’s record. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had always seemed to be the logical usurpers of Jabbar’s crown, if any one would, which I also doubted very much!

Hah!

Twelve years ago, when I wrote the book, James had just “taken his talents” from Northeast Ohio, where the Akron native played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, to South Beach, Florida where he joined Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh as the third member of the Miami Heat’s “big three.” He won a couple of championships there, came back to Cleveland for another championship and then scooted out to Los Angles to win a fourth for the team where Jabbar used to set up shop to rain sky hooks by the thousands on his adversaries.

James is 38 years old and has clearly lost a step, but he is still an elite athlete and, if he stays healthy and avoids injury, can easily blow well past Jabbar’s record if he so chooses. But he would rather do it on a winning team, which is why his record will not feel as sweet to him when it comes. “I want to win. [The losing is] not sitting well with me,” James told ESPN. “I don’t like having accomplishments, and it don’t feel right, when it comes in a losing effort.”

At the time he said those words the Lakers had a record below .500 record and was out of playoff range, and James made it clear that tarnished the achievement. “We’ve been playing some good basketball as of late, but we want to, and I want to, win at the highest level,” James reflected. “Breaking records or setting records or passing greats in a losing effort has never been a DNA of mine.”

Ironically, toward the end of my book, Greatness, I wrote a chapter titled “Records Are Made To Be Broken,” telling readers not to build their tents of greatness around a number because numbers are finite, fixed and time-bound. It’s good to have concrete goals that you strive to achieve. Goals can provide milestones and measures that will furnish feedback you can use to chart improvement. But don’t build your sense of worth, pride and greatness exclusively on a pile of numbers: a salary, sales figure or stock pick.

Build them on the daily application of effort and contribution to a team. They last longer.

I’ve spoken in depth to many athletes in my day, and one of the things that has stood out is this: even the greatest athletes will express regret at having failed to win a championship during their careers. No athlete, good or great, ever regretted one second of being part of a championship team.

And the truth is many of the greatest individual contributors, including James, were leaders on championship teams. When James returned to Cleveland in 2016 to lead his hometown Cavs to their first NBA title, he wasn’t a better scorer or rebounder than he had been previously. But he had grown as a leader, one who knew how to model effort and attention to the little things that add up to greatness.

That’s the platform James seeks again…and the one that will make every point he scores on that stage even more meaningful.