Cavaliers forward LeBron James is a student of the game, a legitimate pop culture icon and a 23-year-old with an incredible knack for doing the right thing.
This week, however, all of those positive attributes must take a back seat to his greatest skill: putting the ball in the basket.
James scored a game-high 30 points Wednesday in Cleveland’s 89-73 win over the Detroit Pistons, putting him just five points away from becoming the leading scorer in Cavaliers history. Brad Daugherty’s team record of 10,389 is almost certain to fall Friday night when Toronto visits Quicken Loans Arena.
“It will mean a lot to go down in the history books as the all-time leading scorer in franchise history,” said James, who has 10,385 points in just under five NBA seasons. “I try to be the best I can be, both on and off the court, so I appreciate everything like this.”
Obviously, it’s never been a question if “The King” would surpass Daugherty’s record, but rather when. He already moved past Austin Carr (10,265), Mark Price (9,543), Bobby “Bingo” Smith (9,513) and John “Hot Rod” Williams (8,504) this season to take over the second spot.
But that doesn’t mean the accomplishment should be celebrated any less than it was when Smith, Carr and Daugherty each ascended into the top position.
Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who hopped over Williams into sixth place several months ago, said James is worthy of all the praise he receives.
“In my case, scoring all those (9,096) points is because I’ve been here a long time,” Ilgauskas said. “But for LeBron, it’s because he is an unbelievable player. You feel good knowing you’ll be a part of him setting this record because of what he’s done already.”
As James noted before the game, if he was going to pick an opponent to set the record against, Detroit would have been his choice. He called it “the rivalry” for Cleveland, saying “it’s still great.”
Add in a nationwide television audience on ESPN and a sellout crowd that came ready to boo the Pistons, and the stage appeared set for another memorable evening.
Detroit, however, had other ideas and held James slightly below his season average of 30.9 points per game. That means the Cavaliers’ scoring championship should change hands against the Raptors in another game that will be shown nationally — only this time, the nation is Canada and the network is TSN.
In the interim, James will have to be content with being on the cover of “Vogue,” talking about his newfound friendship with Tiger Woods and watching the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. (For the record, the Akron native picks North Carolina, Kansas, Pittsburgh and Duke to reach the Final Four.)
His teammates, meanwhile, continue to marvel at everything he does. That includes a certain 7-foot-3 guy who figures to finish his career second on Cleveland’s career scoring list.
“If anybody is going to be ahead of me when I’m done, it should be LeBron,’’ Ilgauskas said, breaking into a smile. “He’s going to be one of the greatest players of all time before he’s finished, so I can live with that. I guess I have to.”
Contact Brian Dulik at sports@ohio.net.

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