LeBron James record watch: Where the Lakers star stands in history books before the season – CBS Sports

In the time it's taking you to read this sentence, LeBron James has probably broken an NBA record. He has so many of them at this point that it's hard to keep track. And this season? He's going to continue rewriting the record books. In fact, he's on track to pass two of the greatest players in NBA history.

By the end of the season, LeBron James will, in all likelihood, pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the leading scorer in NBA history. Much faster than that, he'll pass Magic Johnson for sixth place on the all-time assists leaderboard. So with the season mere days away, let's check in on LeBron's pursuit of history. How long will it take him to reach Magic and Kareem? Who else does he stand to pass in the record books? Here's where James stands as the 2022-23 season gets set to begin.

James has scored 37,062 points in his regular season career. That puts him just 1,325 points behind Abdul-Jabbar, who scored 38,387 in his illustrious career. That gap might look big, but remember, James has failed to reach that threshold in just one season in his entire career: the injury-riddled 2020-21 campaign. If James is remotely healthy, he is going to break the record this season.

But how long will it take him? Well, that depends on what you're using to set a pace:

Ultimately predicting the exact night James makes history would be futile. He'll miss games here and there. His average will fluctuate. But at some point this winter or spring, he will, in all likelihood, become the leading scorer in NBA history. Far earlier than that, he'll jump to No. 6 on the all-time assists leaderboard.

James is chasing only Kareem when it comes to points. As for assists? He's got a few milestones ahead of him. With 10,045 of them for his career, he sits just 96 shy of Johnson for the No. 6 slot. At his career average of 7.4 of them per game, he'll get there in only 13 games.

But Johnson isn't the only player he'll pass this season. No. 5 Mark Jackson (10,334) and No. 4 Steve Nash (10,335) are also well within range. At his career pace, he'd rack up over 600 assists this regular season if he managed to play 82 games. That would comfortably push him to fourth place all time. However, it's unlikely he gets into the top three any time soon. Chris Paul owns that slot for now, and like James, he is still adding to his total. Jason Kidd (12,091) is a viable target for future seasons, but John Stockton's career record of 15,806 assists is likely unbreakable even to James.

As a perimeter-oriented player, James doesn't rack up rebounds quite as frequently as the big men ahead of him on the all-time leaderboard have. Coming into the season, he ranks 42nd all-time with 10,210 rebounds to his name. If he were to maintain last season's average of 6.2 per game over 60 games, he would move up to 35th place, passing Julius Erving, who has 10,525. James has a chance of sneaking into the top 25 when his career comes to a close, but it is highly unlikely that he seriously pursues all-time leader Wilt Chamberlain, whose 23,924 rebounds more than double what James has thus far amassed.

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It won't be long now until James is one of the 10 career leaders in steals. At present, his 2,136 steals sit just 26 behind Hakeem Olajuwon for the No. 10 slot. No. 9 Clyde Drexler, with 2,207, is also in play this season. Once again, though, Stockton has set an overall mark that will not be broken. With 3,265 career steals, no one is even with 500 of the former Jazz point guard.

James won't ever reach the top 10 in all-time blocks, but he moved into the top 100 last season. If he averages one per game this season and plays 60 games, he'll pass Bob Lanier at No. 82, who currently has 1,100.

James already holds the all-time record for minutes played when you include the postseason, but he sits in third place on the regular season leaderboard. Up next for him? Second-place Karl Malone, whose 54,852 minutes give him a 2,713-minute lead over James. LeBron hasn't crossed 2,700 minutes since 2018, so it's unlikely that he passes Malone this season, but if he plays several more, he'll almost certainly pass Abdul-Jabbar's record 57,446.

As for games played? James is surprisingly ranked only 15th. With 1,366 games played, he has a reasonable shot at the top 10 this season. He'd need to play 45 games to pass Jason Terry, who is in 10th place at 1,410. Assuming James plays several more years, he should have a good chance of passing Robert Parish for first place with 1,611 games played.

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LeBron James record watch: Where the Lakers star stands in history books before the season - CBS Sports