🏀 HISTORY.

February 08, 2023

Good morning BTP family! I am sure everyone has seen by now but last night LeBron James made history and passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA all-time leading scorer! After an impressive 38 point performance, the king now sits alone at the top of the NBA. There really is no say of when LeBron will retire, but at the end of it all he will be well over 40,000+ points. In other news LeBron's former teammate, Kyrie Irving, will be joining Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavs after a huge trade went down just a few days ago. Luka finally got the help he was desperately asking for, however, will Kyrie and Luka mesh well together? Only time will tell.

On today's edition of BTP we break down LeBron's historical night, Ja Morant's latest legal trouble, and our Super Bowl LVII preview!

Congrats to the King!

HISTORY

LeBron James Sits Alone at the Top

Last night, with family, friends, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the house, LeBron James scored his 38,388th point and officially became the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. James needed 36 points to pass what many considered an untouchable record and finished with a stat line of 38-7-3.

About last night: Word started trickling out closer to game time about all the family and friends who would be in attendance, and by the time James walked out of the tunnel wearing a headband, you knew there was no way he was leaving Crypto.com Arena without setting the record. James was a man on a mission right out of the gate and displayed a shoot-first mentality that we don’t often see from him.

The details: James shot an efficient 4-6 from downtown but routinely attacked the rim in vintage LeBron fashion. James racked up 20 points by halftime, but he didn’t make fans wait much longer until the record was his. With roughly 10 seconds left in the third quarter, James hit a silky fadeaway jumper over Kenrich Williams to etch his name into NBA history books forever.

The game was immediately paused for a ceremony where Abdul-Jabbar quite literally passed him the torch with the game ball, followed by an emotional speech from James that included an F-bomb. It was a beautiful moment for one of the greatest players in the world, but as he mentioned in his post-game interview, this is not the end for LeBron James; there’s still a lot of basketball left in the kid from Akron.

LEGAL TROUBLE

Ja Morant Dismisses Viral Pacers Story

Ja Morant recently made the wrong kind of headlines after an explosive article from The Athletic detailed a scary incident between Morant’s acquaintances and members of the Pacers traveling party. After a game on January 29th in Memphis, members of Morant’s group allegedly confronted said group and trained a red laser on them, which was presumed to be attached to a gun. Morant has since denied these reports.

What happened? Two of the members of the Pacers traveling party told The Athletic that people in Morant’s car confronted them after the game and felt they were in grave danger after being shown the red laser. Afterward, they alerted the NBA of this alleged incident but didn’t file a police report for fear of retribution. The NBA has since investigated the event and concluded that they “could not corroborate that any individual threatened others with a weapon.”

Morant’s response: Speaking about the incident for the first time yesterday, Morant flatly denied the report saying: "All that stuff pretty much false," and added "It’s been proven. That’s all I got to say on it." Reporters attempted to learn more information, but Morant refused to comment on the matter further.

What’s next? Ja Morant is poised to become not only one of the faces of Nike but one of the faces of the NBA, and this pattern of off-court incidents has to be alarming. Last month, word got out of a dismissed lawsuit that alleged Morant punched a minor at his home in Memphis. Hopefully, this is the last time Morant is in the news for unsavory reasons.

THE BIG GAME

Super Bowl LVII Preview

The Super Bowl is upon us, and it's looking like one for the record books. If you watched a lot of football this year, you'd probably agree that these are the two best teams' standing, as do the sportsbooks. The Eagles are the slight favorites at -1.5 points, and barring any significant money wagered on one side, it's likely to stay there. Here's why it's so close of a spread and how each team could win this game.

Why the Chiefs can win: Simply put, the Chiefs have the best player in the game in Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes is already one of the greatest quarterback talents we’ve ever seen, and he’s in just his fifth season as a starter. He will likely win his second MVP award this season, if he does and if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl on Sunday, he would join an elite group of quarterbacks who have won multiple Super Bowls and multiple league MVPs that include only Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and Peyton Manning. The great ones always rise to the occasion, and Patrick Mahomes is unquestionably great.

Why the Eagles can win: Outside of Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, and maybe the Chiefs' kicker and punter, the Eagles have the positional edge just about everywhere else. This Eagles team is loaded. They only lost one game all season when Jalen Hurts was their starter and they’ve won every playoff game so far in a convincing manner. While it’s true they haven’t faced a team quite like the Chiefs yet, betting against them this season would have cost you a lot of money. There’s also the matter of health, and while no team is 100% this time of year, it’s hard not to see the Eagles as the healthier roster, which is a big point in their favor.

Who’s going to win? Nice try! We will say however that whoever wins likely does so in a close game. These two teams have a ton of offensive firepower behind them and have shown the ability to put up points in clutch situations, so we don't expect a blowout from either side. We should be in store for an incredible Super Bowl, so sit back and enjoy!

THE RUMOR MILL

NBA rumors: Warriors willing to trade young players for significant upgrade

Lakers trade rumors: Jazz have discussed deal that would send Russell Westbrook, picks to Utah

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

February 8, 1986: Spud Webb of the Atlanta Hawks scored two perfect scores of 50 to beat teammate Dominique Wilkins in the Nestle Crunch Slam Dunk Contest