Four NBA professionals heading for glory this season

The NBA returns Tuesday night with the 2021-2022 season kicking off along with the countdown toward more success on record breaking personal bests for three key players and one coach, who are all gunning for glory this season.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Reigning NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is on pace to become Milwaukee’s all-time leader in most major statistical categories.

He will start the new season 1,892 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (14,211) for the Bucks’ franchise record there, which is certainly attainable in 2021-22 if Antetokounmpo plays close to a full season. 

Antetokounmpo is also 1,790 rebounds behind Abdul-Jabbar (7,161), which means that team record won’t realistically be his before the 2022-23 season.

The Bucks player is a mere 39 blocked shots from matching Alton Lister (804) for the Bucks’ career record.

Also Read: The 5 greatest NBA All Star games of all time

LeBron James

James enters the season No. 3 on the scoring list, 1,561 points away from No. 2 Karl Malone’s 36,928 points, putting NBA’s all-time scoring honours in close reach of himself. 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tops the list with 38,387 points — currently 3,020 ahead of James.

If not this season, James is well on track to become the league’s leading scorer next year.

If James averages 25 points per game in the regular season, which he did last year, he would catch Malone in his 63rd game this season and could reach Abdul-Jabbar’s mark sometime around the midpoint of the 2022-23 campaign.

By adding the playoffs, James is in line to become No. 1 in career scoring this season. 

With postseason included, he has scored 42,998 points, just 1,151 away from Abdul-Jabbar’s 44,149, meaning that’s well within range for James this season.

James is also 304 assists shy of 10,000, 21 3-pointers away from 2,000, and one triple-double from having 100 of those.

The biggest stat for James, however, is that he averages 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists per game — but, somehow, has never had a game with exactly 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

Steph Curry

Curry is on speed to surpass Ray Allen’s mark for 3’s made in a career.

How soon can Curry get there?Allen retired with 2,973 3-pointers in regular-season games. Curry is 141 behind, with 2,832 in his career. At his typical rate of 3’s made in recent years — about five per game — the Golden State sharpshooter could have the record by mid-December.

Curry is the only player in NBA history to average at least five made 3’s per game over a full season. He’s done it three times. Curry also has four of the five seasons of at least 300 made 3’s, including a record 402 in 2015-16.

Allen never made more than 269 3’s in a season. Curry has topped that on six different occasions.

Gregg Popovich

San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, who is entering his 26th season as coach of the Spurs, has 1,310 career regular-season wins, just 26 shy of the outright possession of the NBA record. 

He’s currently third on the list, behind only No. 2 Lenny Wilkens (1,332) and No. 1 Don Nelson (1,335).

Popovich doesn’t have a lot of contemporaries in other sports, either.

Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 seasons. George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years (though not consecutively), John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31, Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys for 29, Curly Lambeau coached the Green Bay Packers for 29, and Don Shula coached the Miami Dolphins for 26.

They’re the only coaches in the four major US leagues to spend as much time with a team as Popovich has with the Spurs.

Bill Belichick is the NFL leader in current tenure, in Year 22 with New England. Nobody else in the major pro leagues is even close to Popovich’s total.