CLEVELAND _ LeBron James is a basketball savant on and off the court.
The man knows basketball history and respects past stars such as Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan.
So when he passed Abdul-Jabbar for most career field goals made in NBA playoff history on Monday night in a Cavaliers 111-102 victory over the Boston Celtics, James fielded a question about the accomplishment and gave a thoughtful answer.
"Any time I'm in the same breath with the greats, I know you guys hear me say it over and over, it's just humbling," James said after the Cavs evened up the Eastern Conference Finals at 2-2 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Boston.
James will enter the game atop the career playoff field goals (2,368) and career playoff points (6,668) lists.
Abdul-Jabbar had 2,356 career playoff field goals and 5,762 career playoff points. Jordan totaled 2,188 career playoff field goals and 5,987 career playoff points.
"He's a very smart player," Celtics center Al Horford said. "He just knows how to read the game. He has a good feel for it, and he's usually making the right plays."
James, playing in his 232nd NBA playoff game, scored 44 points on Monday after making 17-of-28 field goal attempts and 9-of-13 free throw attempts against the Celtics in front of a sellout crowd of 20,562.
"To know where I come from [in Akron], you guys know a little bit of the story," James said. "But you guys don't know the full story about where I come from and the struggle that I had. You guys know about the single-parent struggle, and y'all done heard that story. But there's a lot more to it, which I'll talk about when I'm done playing ball.
"But to know where I come from, a small city 35 miles south of here, and to hear I'm in the same category or talked about and jumping these greats in the playoffs _ it's like I was a kid and I watched the playoffs so much and I was like, I would love to be a part of that, that moment, that atmosphere. I think it's pretty cool. You hear the scoring, the field goals made, and for a kid that really doesn't care much about scoring."
"He's the best in the game at evaluating the court and figuring out what he wants and where he wants it," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of James. "The thing about it is that you just have to battle. You just have to make it as hard as possible, because he's going to find a matchup that he ultimately wants."
