Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James’ five most memorable Laker moments

Passing Michael Jordan in all-time scoring

This moment was the largest career milestone that LeBron had in his first year with the Los Angeles Lakers. It came in a semi-meaningless game where the Lakers were already eliminated from the playoffs and looking forward to how to rebuild the roster in hopes of restoring the greatness of the most storied franchise in professional basketball.

However, this was one of the few bright spots of the season. Coming into the game, LeBron needed only thirteen points to pass Michael Jordan, and he did so on a driving layup.

While this game wound up being a large sixteen point loss to the Denver Nuggets, it seemed that in the fourth quarter LeBron and the Lakers were going to find a way to make a comeback. They went to have a solid scoring run that would eventually be slammed to a halt.

LeBron however, did all he could to turn his milestone night into a victory. He scored thirty-one points, pulled down seven rebounds, and passed for seven assists. After the game, James was quoted as saying (h/t ESPN),

"“A lot of stuff that I’ve done in my career, this ranks right up at the top (with) winning a championship… For a kid from Akron, Ohio, that needed inspiration and needed some type of positive influence, M.J. was that guy for me. I watched him from afar, wanted to be like M.J., wanted to shoot fadeaways like M.J., wanted to stick my tongue out on dunks like M.J., wanted to wear my sneakers like M.J. I wanted kids to look up to me at some point like M.J., and it’s crazy, to be honest.”"