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February 25, 2015LeBron James had another record-breaking performance on Tuesday night, surpassing Scottie Pippen for the most assists all-time by a frontcourt player in NBA history. With his 11 assists in the victory over the Detroit Pistons, LeBron now has 6,142 for his career. That’s the 27th-most all-time.
To commemorate the occasion of the Akron native becoming the most generous passing forward to play the game of basketball, here’s a look back in charts at some of his most frequent recipients.
The below image shows the 10 individuals who have received 150-plus assists from James. Pacing the group, by quite a distance, is retired Cavalier center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Miami’s Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are next, followed by Drew Gooden and Anderson Varejao. The remainder of the top 10 are assorted shooters that James has played with throughout his career.
The 10-20 ranking, of players who have received at least 100 assists, is a bit more eclectic. There are infamous former Cavs point guards like Jeff McInnis and Eric Snow. And then big men like Carlos Boozer and J.J. Hickson. Ray Allen, if he does decide to come back and perhaps play with the Cavaliers, could add to his total in 11th place.
In total, 94 players have received the 6,142 assists from LeBron James in his career. Of those 94, eight have received exactly one. That’s a really interesting trivia list of players on the Cavs and Heat over the years.
There are some pretty understandable trends of how LeBron shared the wealth with more players during his first tenure in Cleveland, then distributed mostly to Bosh and Wade in Miami. During the 2014-15 season, Kevin Love has been by far the most LeBron-assisted player on the team, with 82 assists received already. Kyrie Irving is next at 56 assists received.
Bonus chart! But what about LeBron assists in a single season in his career? The record-holder is Chris Bosh with 141 last season. At Love’s current pace — 82 in only 46 games played together — he’s on track to finish with 124.8 this season, which would be the sixth-most for a teammate in LeBron’s career.
12 Comments
I’m all for any unit of measure that puts Sasha Pavlovic above Carlos Boozer
Fantastic Jacob. I cannot even fathom how many assists were left on the court as well from Snow, Hughes, and others clanging wide open looks off the rim.
Dion Waiters.
Got him sent to a team where he can be the man.
Or is that not the assist you had in mind?
i actually am having a great time watching the Dion sentiment change from love to hate in OKC. I catch their games when i can and it always seems he is “in a little slump,” based on what the announcers say. Oh, Dion…..
thanks, Jacob. I was wondering this exact stat when i saw his accomplishment. what are the odds that someone passes Z on this list?
And then he teases again with a huge game, rinse, repeat…
I think it’s cool that Z is at the top.
Seems pretty low. Maybe in 7 years Love or Kyrie will be close? Or Bosh comes to Cleveland for a swan song?
But how many of those came in Miami unis? I refuse to acknowledge Z’s time there, mainly because he still didn’t get that coveted ring.
No idea, was referring to his time here.
728 with the Cavs, 57 with the Heat in the 2010-11 season.
Surprised not to see Delonte West on this list, it’s probably due to his shorter tenure with the team. I still think 2008-09 Delonte was the best player LeBron played with before Wade and Bosh.