Since LeBron James was unable to add to his already long list of NBA playoff records after his Los Angeles Lakers failed to make the playoffs, it’s been a while since we’ve heard something about another historic accolade for The King. But Monday brought the unexpected treat of a look at recent history from ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry.
The shot-mapping extraordinaire put together his list of the best shooters of the last decade and while several players made the list, there was only one King at the basket: LeBron James. You can see James at the basket here at the very end of this video.
According to Goldsberry, LeBron was the league’s leader in points for the decade of the 2010s and as shown above, James also scored the most field goals from around the rim over the past decade.
A cursory glance at his shooting numbers on Basketball-Reference shows that seven of his eight most efficient seasons shooting the ball from less than three feet were in the 2010s. Also only twice during his entire career has he shot lower than 70% at from less than three feet, with both happening before his age 22 season. Last season, James shot 75.5% from less than three feet, according to Basketball Reference.
