LOS ANGELES — For 38 years, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been the NBA’s scoring king.

On Tuesday night, a new king was crowned.

Inside Crypto.com Arena — the house that Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Kobe Bryant built — LeBron James scored his 38,388th career point against the Oklahoma City Thunder to become the new holder of the NBA’s all-time scoring record.

It took nearly four decades for Abdul-Jabbar’s record to be broken. 

James’ final point mark, whenever he chooses to hang up his shoes, may similarly not be challenged for decades. If ever.

With 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter, James hit a turnaround, fadeaway jumper from the free throw line to score the record-breaker, as the home crowd boiled over. The game immediately halted — James’ family stepped onto the court to congratulate him, a video package blared throughout the arena, and Abdul-Jabbar stepped onto the court accompanied by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, to symbolically pass over the game ball alongside the scoring record.

Handed a microphone, James asked the Lakers faithful to stand and cheer for Abdul-Jabbar, before thanking local fans, his family, and the entirety of fans around the league.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke the previous NBA scoring record, held by his old rival Wilt Chamberlain, in 1984 — then, a model of consistency, he played five more years to finish with a total of 38,387 lifetime points.

He did so, scoring an average of 24.6 points per game in his career, though his effectiveness and scoring dropped as his career came to its end — in his last season, he averaged only 10.1 points per game.

James, by contrast, has remained steadfastly consistent over his career. So far this year, in his age 38 season, he’s averaging over 30 points per game — just as he did last year. He has also never averaged fewer than 20 points per game in any season of his career.

But the real key to both records was and has been longevity. Abdul-Jabbar played in 1,560 regular season games over 20 seasons. James, thus far, has played in 1,410 games in his 20 seasons — and he shows no signs of slowing.

Abdul-Jabbar was in attendance at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night, watching as James crossed the threshold toward history.

The scoring title may not be the final achievement in James’s career, as he continues both to seek another championship and to play in the NBA alongside his oldest son, LeBron James Jr. But it does fulfill the promise of mythical talent projected over two decades ago, and highlighted in a Sports Illustrated feature by the late sportswriter Grant Wahl.

Twenty-one years ago, a 17-year-old LeBron James was described as a better teenage prospect than even NBA legends Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. Barely old enough to see an R-rated movie, he brought a twinkle to the eye of everyone in the hoops business: NBA scouts, coaches, players — and even The Greatest himself, Michael Jordan. James, at 16 years old, was the only high schooler invited to Jordan’s top-secret private workouts in Chicago.

“A lot of players know how to play the game,” a teenage LeBron said, “but they really don’t know how to play the game, if you know what I mean. They can put the ball in the hoop, but I see things before they even happen. You know how a guy can make his team so much better? That’s one thing I learned from watching Jordan.”

Both the ability and the desire to better his teammates have been constant in James’s career, with the King racking up assist records as well — on Jan. 31, he reached fourth place on the NBA’s all-time assist leaderboard. His at times herculean efforts to elevate his teammates in Los Angeles hearken back to his early NBA years, when he dragged talent-thin Cleveland Cavaliers teams late into the playoffs. 

By breaking the record while wearing a Lakers jersey, James — by some measure of coincidence — became the fourth player to control the all-time scoring crown while doing so, following Minneapolis Lakers legend George Mikan, and Los Angeles Lakers players Wilt Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar.