Shaquille O'Neal takes a jab at LeBron: "He is humble, but also a bit arrogant"
The legendary former star explained why he thinks James chose to start his 24th season in the league and why he believes he will continue to push the historic scoring record: "He wants to set it so far out that no one will break it."
In the 2026/27 season, LeBron James is expected to begin his 24th season in the league — an unprecedented achievement that no player has recorded before him. He arrives at this milestone having broken almost every record in NBA history. The four-time MVP surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's historic scoring record in 2023 and later became the first player ever to cross the 40,000-point mark in the regular season. Since then, he has continued to increase the gap at the top of the all-time scoring list.
Ahead of the new season, James's tally stands at 43,440 points in the regular season — a significant gap from everyone else. This achievement naturally did not escape the notice of the legendary Shaquille O'Neal. In an interview with "The Old Man And The Three" podcast, O'Neal explained why he believes LeBron will not be satisfied with just being the NBA's leading scorer:
"LeBron is a humble guy, but also a bit arrogant. He enjoys being the #1 scorer in league history. But he tells himself: 'I'm going to set this record so far out that no one will ever be able to reach it'."
"When I played and looked at Kareem's numbers, I said to myself: '36,000, 38,000 points? I'll never reach that in my life'," the former Laker continued. "I looked a few days ago and saw that LeBron is already at 45,000. He's still averaging 20 points per game, and at this rate, he'll even reach 50,000 points."
