Remembering the final time LeBron scored fewer than 10 factors within the common season … 18 years in the past

Editor’s be aware: This file was initially printed on Jan. 25, 2023. On Dec. 4, 2025, in Toronto, James’ double-digit scoring streak ended after 1,297 video games. The streak started greater than 18 years in the past.

LEBRON JAMES IS well-known for his uncanny potential to recall particular moments from any level all through his professional basketball profession, whether or not it occurred minutes and even years prior.

However when requested earlier this week in regards to the milestone he reached Thursday — going 16 years and 1,125 regular-season video games with out scoring fewer than 10 factors — James was stumped.

“Actually?” he instructed ESPN. “I do not keep in mind it.”

It seems James is not alone.

The sport nobody appears to recall? It was Jan. 5, 2007, a Cleveland Cavaliers’ 95-86 highway victory over the Milwaukee Bucks throughout James’ fourth season within the NBA.

His line: 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 3-for-13 capturing from the sector in 43 minutes.

And eight factors.

“Once I went to have a look at the field rating I used to be like, ‘Properly, perhaps I had recreation,'” Donyell Marshall, now an assistant with the G League’s Greensboro Swarm and a ahead on that 2006-07 Cavaliers workforce, instructed ESPN. “Then I seemed on the field rating and I used to be like, ‘Properly, I did not do something both.'”

“For those who’d requested me, ‘Do you keep in mind having 30-plus and LeBron being in single digits?’ I might have anticipated to have some sort of reminiscence of it,” Drew Gooden, a former Cavaliers ahead and now working as an analyst for Washington Wizards broadcasts, instructed ESPN with amusing.

There was one individual, nonetheless, who had a crystal clear reminiscence of what occurred that night time: then-Bucks coach Terry Stotts.

“I will be trustworthy, I do not forget that recreation distinctly — and never as a result of LeBron did not rating 10,” Stotts instructed ESPN.

The ultimate play of that Cleveland victory — a dunk by Michael Redd with 14.8 seconds to go — would develop into the start of the top of Stotts’ tenure in Milwaukee.

“Michael had a dunk within the final seconds of the sport,” Stotts mentioned. “A meaningless dunk. We had been down 9.

“[But] he goes as much as dunk the ball, and he did one thing to his knee and missed the following 20 video games. … We went 3-17.”

And, just a little over two months later — after Milwaukee entered that Cavaliers recreation with a .500 report, and with wins in seven of their prior 9 video games — Stotts was fired. He would later go on to have a profitable nine-year run as coach of the Portland Path Blazers.

However whereas the sport turned out to have important penalties for the Bucks, for Cleveland it was merely one other night time on the best way to a wildly profitable season that ended with an NBA Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

So whereas James’ former teammates could not keep in mind a lot a few random January recreation 16 years in the past, the reminiscences of enjoying alongside him stay robust.

“I am amazed by how a lot he retains creating and rising and figuring issues out, all with the burden of the world on his shoulders,” Gooden mentioned.

“He is an actual life superhero, who’s all the time accessible.”

FOR MARSHALL, WHO spent elements of three seasons enjoying alongside James as a part of a profession that noticed him play for eight completely different groups, his enduring reminiscence of James was of somebody who was devoted to each enhancing and figuring out the historical past of the sport from a really younger age.

“I performed with numerous superstars, however by no means one who studied the sport from the age he was on the time,” Marshall mentioned. “As quickly as the sport was over, he needed [to watch] movie.

“To me, numerous guys in the present day aren’t essentially college students of the sport. A number of guys did not know the gamers that performed earlier than him, that paved the best way for him. He is a man, although, that is aware of Oscar Robertson’s stats. He is aware of Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar’s] stats. He is aware of Wilt Chamberlain’s stats.”

Gooden, in the meantime, mentioned what stood out to him was the best way James, at each level all through his life below a basketball microscope going again to his highschool days at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio, has all the time met the moments positioned earlier than him.

“Simply him all the time figuring it out,” Gooden mentioned. “Simply with the ability to produce below strain. I’ve recognized him since he was 15, so it is a completely different perspective from figuring out him over 26 years. …

“He had this Nike marketing campaign, about how we had been witnesses to his greatness. Properly, now we have all been witnesses. It is simply that. It is that, plus extra.”

To place James’ streak in perspective: Marshall performed in 957 video games throughout 15 NBA seasons. Gooden, in the meantime, performed 790 throughout 14 years within the league — each way more, and much longer, than the common NBA participant’s profession.

“It is really extra stunning he ever scored below 10 factors than to say he hasn’t finished it in 16 years,” Marshall mentioned. “Early in your profession, your rookie 12 months, you are going to have some video games the place you may not rating over 10. However the greatness that he has displayed and all that he is finished, I might say I am extra shocked he had a recreation below 10 factors than I’m shocked in regards to the streak.”

Former Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson, then again, was a rookie that season. When requested about enjoying alongside James, Gibson instantly recalled his pre-draft exercise forward of the 2006 draft, when he was taken by Cleveland with the forty second general choose.

“I had a horrible exercise in Houston, after which the Cavs had been my second exercise,” mentioned Gibson, who’s now an assistant coach with the G League’s Cleveland Cost, instructed ESPN. “And [LeBron] was there and I did wonderful.

“After the exercise, he got here as much as me and it simply sort of gave me the entire confidence on the planet. Being that he is LeBron James, you are [just] hoping for a chance on a roster — not to mention him telling you he’d love that, if I used to be nonetheless accessible, to be on their roster.

“He instilled numerous confidence in me after which that is what I discovered about him from the day I acquired to the Cavs, man. He was, to me, one of the best participant on the planet, and he was nonetheless the primary individual within the health club, final one to depart.”

“At first I used to be like, ‘That is simply one other a type of data that is sort of made up,’ however then I spotted it isn’t. It is like an actual report.”

LeBron James, on his streak of 1,125 regular-season video games with a minimum of 10 factors

For his half, James mentioned he would not pay a lot consideration to the regular-season recreation streak, saying it was solely one thing he famous each time it popped up on his social media timeline or was talked about within the media.

And, he mentioned, when he appears at field scores at halftime, his level complete is not one thing he focuses on.

“I see it,” James mentioned, “however probably the most issues I have a look at are our workforce turnovers, the opposite workforce’s factors off turnovers, fast-break factors by our opponents, my private turnovers.

“That is just about it. I do not have a look at the overall factors an excessive amount of.”

THE CLOSEST JAMES got here to breaking the streak was March 20, 2021, when he fell to the court docket in agony and frustration after spraining his ankle after touchdown on Atlanta Hawks ahead Solomon Hill.

It briefly seemed like he may not be capable of maintain enjoying. However he managed to remain in lengthy sufficient to hit a 3-pointer to get to 10 factors earlier than calling a timeout and leaving the sport.

It could develop into the final recreation James would play for greater than a month, although James mentioned he wasn’t conscious on the time of the ramifications of his made 3-pointer.

“Not till after the sport,” James mentioned.

One other noteworthy second in the course of the streak got here in the course of the 2017-18 regular-season finale in opposition to the New York Knicks, the place James, whose objective was to play in all 82 video games, instantly left the competition after scoring precisely 10 factors in 11 minutes.

Whereas James’ double-digit factors streak has develop into an even bigger deal over time — notably after he handed Michael Jordan’s earlier report of 866 consecutive common season video games on March 30, 2018, in a Cavaliers victory over the New Orleans Pelicans — it was by no means one thing he considered attempting to attain.

“I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is fairly cool,'” James mentioned, referring to passing Jordan. “At first I used to be like, ‘That is simply one other a type of data that is sort of made up,’ however then I spotted it isn’t. It is like an actual report. However, I do not know. I simply exit and play.

“It is the identical with the all-time scoring report after I get it. I by no means even [aimed for it] … It is fairly cool. I imply, I am unable to sit right here and be like, ‘Oh, nicely, it doesn’t suggest something.’ As a result of it does. However I did not got down to do it. I did not.”

Whether or not James aimed to attain it or not, 16 years later he is nonetheless doing it, inching nearer to breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s as soon as seemingly insurmountable mark because the league’s all-time main scorer with 38,387 factors.

For Gooden, although, it provides him a chance to show to his 10-year-old son, Drew Gooden IV, that his dad really does know a factor or two about enjoying with one of many greats.

“I will probably be exhibiting my son this field rating,” Gooden mentioned with amusing, including that his son asks about James “on a regular basis.”

“He’ll say to me, ‘Did you discuss to LeBron? Have you learnt it is his birthday?'” Gooden continued. “He is an enormous LeBron fan, and he is attending to the age now the place he is aware of it is the reality, as a result of there’s information to again it up.

“There’s some historic nights I have been a part of with him. However by no means did I believe there can be a historic night time the place he scored single digits and I had 31.”