Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James continues to cement his legacy as one of the NBA鈥檚 greats. James has moved into 10th on the NBA鈥檚 all-time scoring list, passing Hakeen Olajuwan.
WKSU commentator has been following James since he was a teenager in Akron and just put out a book on the Cavs championship run called .
Pluto says this recent milestone in his career happened kind of quietly.
Pluto says that when it comes to LeBron James, there are two groups of people: 鈥淭hose who are sick of him and don鈥檛 care what he does. The other is -- like University of Akron coach Keith Dambrot 鈥� who said he sort of yawned about it.鈥� Dambrot coached James at St. Vincent St. Mary High School in Akron.
Why?
鈥淚t just feels like he鈥檚 played forever,鈥� Pluto says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e used to him. He鈥檚 been around; some of us have watched him since he was 14 and most everyone else since he was 16 or certainly by the time he was 17 and in the NBA draft.
Then of course he plays here. But we are seeing one of the greatest players ever in basketball history. And we are seeing LeBron James, who鈥檚 come back to Cleveland as a much better player than the one who left.鈥�
Downplayed
For LeBron James, cracking the top 10 scoring list is secondary. 鈥淗e鈥檚 always been more interested in assists and rebounding and defense. He鈥檚 moved into the top 10 in scoring without concentrating on scoring,鈥� Pluto says.
Pluto says James鈥� goal is to win championships.
鈥淗e knows now he has this string of six consecutive appearances in the Finals, with a good chance for seven. He has three titles with two different franchises. He鈥檚 reached the finals seven times with four different coaches 鈥� Mike Brown, Eric Spolestra, David Blatt and Tyronn Lue. He has three titles with two different franchises.
So it鈥檚 not like somebody goes to San Antonino and hooks up with Greg Popovich and like Tim Duncan they keep going to the Finals. Or Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan.
How far can he go?
Right now, tops on the NBA scoring list is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387 points. James has 29,670 (as of 11/8/16). 鈥淟eBron would have to play a long time to [catch Jabbar]. But he could easily get to the top five. Michael Jordan is fourth [with 32,292 points]. But the other thing is he鈥檚 18th all-time in assists and no one else is close to that.鈥�
Is James underappreciated?
Keith Dambrot told Pluto that James is under appreciated, "because his last title was really about what LeBron created."
When LeBron went to Miami, he hooked up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. But when he comes to Cleveland in 2014, there鈥檚 no Wade or Bosh.
Yeah, he picked up Kyrie Irving and they trade for Kevin Love. But none of these guys had ever done anything! He inherited a coach in David Blatt who hadn鈥檛 even coached in America, much less NBA. He didn鈥檛 look at this and say, 鈥楾his is a great situation to win.鈥欌��
鈥淗e came home to try and do something unique. Which is why this last championship meant more than the other two. But it isn鈥檛 the awe of Michael Jordon or Kobe Bryant got. And the great thing is, it鈥檚 not like he鈥檚 on his last leg. He鈥檚 got several good years left.鈥�
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