Last week the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James drained a fadeaway jumper from the top of the key that established him as the NBA’s all-time career scoring leader. His 38 points scored on the 38th day of the 2023 calendar year bested a record that hadn’t previously been broken for 39 years.

As some shlub sitting behind a keyboard in southeastern Michigan, I’m the last person to chime in on whether King James is the best that’s ever been. I will say, however, the fact that he’s scored more points than anyone in league history and is fourth on the career assists list and sits in the top 35 all-time in rebounds and has won four NBA Championships does quite a bit of chiming.

Rather, my role today is recollect the two times I was able to see James play in person.

The first came at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center when James was a senior in high school at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School. His eventual high school national championship team played Detroit Redford (then ranked 14th nationally) and its future Mr. Basketball recipeint, Dion Harris. It was a rather forgettable game for my friend Wayne and I to make the 6-hour Sunday roundtrip for – SVSM won 76-41. There are two moments that linger, however. The first occurred when James picked up a loose ball near midcourt and broke free to throw down a thunderous dunk; much to the delight of the crowd. Later, a similar play occurred, but rather than dunking James merely laid it which led to a round of boos.

Beyond those two exchanges the only other recollection I have is that – I’m 99.9% certain – a Tony Packo’s stop was made on our way through Toledo heading home because … um … Packo’s!

I had an chance to see James again the next year – again with Wayne, but also with my then-2-year-old son Jake and Wayne’s sons in Chicago’s United Center. It was during a family pre-Christmas trip to Chicago and we managed to go to a Bulls-Cavaliers game on Saturday and a Blackhawks-Devils game on a Sunday.

The particulars of that game are lost to an aging memory, I’m afraid, though the boxscore tells me James scored 32 points and had 10 assists in 41-plus minutes of action on his first visit to Chicago. What I remember most about the night is that it was a 7:30 local time start and Jake was not going to make it to the end of the game. As this was the era before rideshare services trying to find a cab around the United Center while the game was ongoing … not easy. Eventually we found one and made our way back to the hotel but not before this father had a few more gray hairs sprout on that frigid Saturday night.

Did I have an inkling during either of these interactions with basketball royalty that James would go on to score more points than any other player in the game’s history? Not a chance.

Am I glad I had a chance to see him in person before he’d cemented his place among the game’s greatest of all time. Absolutely.