LeBron James has plenty of very positive NBA records. Nobody has scored more points or played more minutes of professional basketball — and nobody else has shared an NBA court with his son. He is quite possibly the greatest player in the history of basketball, but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect, and on Tuesday, James set one record he’d likely rather forget.
Coming into his 22nd season, James had missed a total of 14,476 field goals in his illustrious NBA career. That left him just five shy of Kobe Bryant’s all-time record of 14,481 missed field-goal attempts. Sure enough, during the season opener between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, James missed his sixth shot in the third quarter and claimed the record for most misses in league history with 14,482 (and counting).
The history-making miss came on a transition layup attempt that was defended by Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo.
In the grand scheme of things, this record isn’t quite as dubious as it might appear. Remember, we’re talking about total missed field goals, not the lowest overall field goal percentage. To even attempt the number of shots James has missed, you need to have the ball in your hands far more often than any bad player could ever hope to. Most players don’t come close to taking 14,882 shots, much less missing them. But James is able to control the ball enough to do so because he’s so dominant.
A look at the all-time leaderboard for misses confirms all of this. Bryant, the former record holder, is obviously a legend in his own right. In fact, the top 27 in all-time field goal misses are all either in the Hall of Fame or are in line to get there themselves. Joe Johnson, with 9,897 misses at No. 28 on the list, is the first questionable Hall of Fame case… and he made seven All-Star teams. This is not a list for scrubs.
If James had his choice, he would probably prefer not to own this record, but given how long he is likely to keep playing, he may set a new mark that is almost unreachable. James has at least one full season ahead of him and perhaps a few more after that. He will almost certainly become the first player in league history to miss 15,000 shots just like he was the first player ever to score 40,000 points. The latter obviously more impressive than the former, but that doesn’t mean he should be too ashamed of the former.
