How LeBron James claimed the NBA's scoring crown, step by step
LOS ANGELES — It's the largest compilation of greatest hits in professional basketball history, a road show unlike any that's come before.
There's the dunk in Miami, the clutch step-back jumper in Cleveland, the 3-ball in Los Angeles.
It's a history tour of the league's 21st-century nomad.
There's a layup in Seattle. A 20-footer in Charlotte against the Bobcats. A free throw in Charlotte against the Hornets. A jumper against the Hornets in New Orleans. A buzzer beater against the Hornets in Oklahoma City. A carbon-copy Kobe Bryant slam in Los Angeles.
Each basket added to the total, stacking and stacking until they've gotten James here — Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his family and friends in the building to witness.
James became the NBA's all-time leading scorer late in the third quarter, history coming on a step-back fadeaway jumper from 14 feet.
Even this hoop, the one that'll be highlighted from here on, only counted for two — just like the ones on the road that led here, to this historic, celebrated place.
THE SIGNATURE
— Points 9 and 10 (0.026% to the record)
— One-handed dunk Oct. 29, 2003, in Sacramento against the Kings
The pressure should've crushed him before he ever soared, the gravity of his first professional game more than enough to keep LeBron James grounded.
The mythology was underway before James even draped himself in a baggy NBA uniform, the most-hyped high school star in generations somehow landing on his hometown team.
The team's owner at
