A Tale of Two Cities.

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LeBron James breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA scoring record
Dave McMenamin and Ohm Youngmisuk -- ESPN.com

LOS ANGELES -- Long after he buried a historic 14-foot fadeaway jumper that put him alone atop the NBA's all-time scoring list and celebrated by raising his arms high toward the ceiling of Crypto.com Arena, LeBron James got to relive his immortal moment through his son's eyes.

As the Los Angeles Lakers star iced his joints late Tuesday night, Bronny James walked over and showed his father a video he shot of the moment James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record.

"Oh, that's tough!" James told Bronny as he watched the record-breaking basket on his son's phone. "You got that saved? Send that to me."

It was a fadeaway jumper -- not a skyhook ode to Abdul-Jabbar or one of his signature power dunks -- with 10.9 seconds left in the third quarter of a 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that sent James to the top of a mountain that Abdul-Jabbar stood on for more than 38 years at 38,387 career points.

James entered the game with 38,352 points, needing 36 to overtake Abdul-Jabbar. He finished the night with 38 points on 13-of-20 shooting (4-of-6 from 3) to go along with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

As the game came to a halt to celebrate a record that so many thought would never be reached, an emotional James broke down in tears.

"I write 'The Man In The Arena' on my shoe every single night from Theodore Roosevelt," James said afterward. "Tonight, I actually felt like I was sitting on top of the arena when that shot went in, and the roar from the crowd. I'm not sure if I would be able to feel that feeling again, unless it's a game-winning Finals shot.

"Everything just stopped. It gave me an opportunity to embrace it and look around and seeing my family, the fans, my friends. It was pretty cool. I probably can count on my hands how many times I have cried in 20 years, either in happiness or in defeat. So that moment was one of them when I kind of teared up a little bit. It was 'I can't believe what's going on' tears."

Photographers quickly circled James on the court, as chants of "MVP" rained down from the crowd and highlights of his storied 20-year career played on the videoboard.

The game was stopped for about 10 minutes while James hugged his family, including his wife, mother and three children, and participated in a brief ceremony with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Abdul-Jabbar, who watched the game from a baseline seat near the Lakers bench.

"A record that has stood for nearly 40 years," Silver said. "Many people thought it would never be broken. LeBron, you are the NBA's all-time scoring leader. Congratulations."

Abdul-Jabbar held the game ball aloft then handed it to James, the ceremonial passing of the torch. They posed for photos with Silver then with each other.

"I just want to say thank you to the Laker faithful. You guys are one of a kind," James told the fans who turned out in droves for the chance to see a once-in-a-generation achievement. "To be able to be in the presence of such a legend and great as Kareem, it's very humbling. Please give a standing ovation to The Captain, please."

James then thanked his family and those who have supported him, including Silver and late NBA commissioner David Stern.

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Lakers send Russell Westbrook to Jazz in 3-team, 8-player deal
News Service -- NBA.com

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers have traded Russell Westbrook to Utah and reacquiring guard D’Angelo Russell from Minnesota in a three-team, eight-player deal. Minnesota is getting Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Utah, along with three second-round picks, it was announced Thursday.

Los Angeles is also getting guard Malik Beasley and forward Jarred Vanderbilt from the Jazz, bolstering its core around LeBron James in a bid to jump-start its sputtering season. The Lakers fell to 25-30 on Tuesday while James set the NBA’s career scoring record, and they sit in 13th place in the 15-team Western Conference.

The Lakers are sending Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones and their first-round pick in 2027 to Utah with Westbrook. In a separate move, the Timberwolves waived Bryn Forbes to make room for their new additions.

Westbrook’s tenure with his hometown team lasted just 130 tumultuous games. The 2017 NBA MVP never thrived with James and injury-plagued Anthony Davis for any significant stretch of time, struggling to mold his possession-heavy game into a more complementary role.

A move to the bench last fall led to minor improvements over a dismal 2021-22 season, but Westbrook still appeared profoundly uncomfortable with the Lakers, who are in danger of missing the playoffs for the second straight year. Westbrook averaged 17.4 points, 7.2 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 3.7 turnovers per game during his time in Los Angeles, where fans grumbled regularly about his poor shooting and turnovers.

The 34-year-old Westbrook is making about $47 million in the final year of his contract. Several months after the Lakers infuriated a large portion of their worldwide fan base by not trading Westbrook in the summer, they swapped him for Russell, who played his first two NBA seasons with the Lakers after they chose him with the second overall pick in the 2015 draft.

Russell was a rookie during Kobe Bryant’s final season, and the point guard was the most consistently entertaining part of two poor Lakers teams before Magic Johnson traded him to Brooklyn in 2017. Russell is now being traded for the fourth time in his eight NBA seasons.

Russell is averaging 17.9 points, 6.2 assists and 3.1 rebounds while hitting a career-best 46.5% of his shots with Minnesota in the final year of a contract paying him more than $31 million this season. His style on both ends of the court also could complement James and Davis better than Westbrook, although the Lakers will have little time to figure it out.

The Timberwolves courted Russell hard when he was on the market in July 2019, when Brooklyn ultimately landed on a sign-and-trade deal that sent Kevin Durant to the Nets and shipped Russell to Golden State. The Wolves eventually acquired Russell at the deadline in Feb. 2020 and teamed him with his draft-class pal, Karl-Anthony Towns.

The Russell-Towns pairing never really took off, in part because of injuries for each player that often kept them from being on the court at the same time. The Wolves drafted Anthony Edwards with the first overall pick in 2020, integrating another high-impact offensive player into the lineup whose value is minimized without frequent touches.

The Wolves made the playoffs in 2022, but only recently have Russell and Edwards truly clicked after coach Chris Finch made Edwards the primary ball-handler and moved Russell into an off-ball position to better maximize his shooting ability.

Russell is shooting a career-best 39.1% from 3-point range, having made five or more shots from deep in six of his last 17 games.

Conley is more of a pure distribute-first point guard than Russell, who has never been a tenacious perimeter defender, either. The 35-year-old Conley is averaging 10.7 points and 7.7 assists in his fourth season with Utah.

Conley will reunite with big man Rudy Gobert, whose transition to Minnesota has been slow. Conley and Gobert meshed well with the Jazz, and their collective experience in the playoffs ought to also help a Wolves team that has been remarkably inconsistent this season while trying to keep up in the crowded race.

There’ll be an even bigger Minnesota reunion on the Lakers, with Vanderbilt and Beasley going to LA where Patrick Beverley already plays — although Beverley is showing up in numerous trade rumors himself in the final hours before the deadline. All four of those players helped the Timberwolves get the No. 7 seed for the playoffs last season before Vanderbilt, Beasley and Beverley were traded to the Jazz in the Gobert deal.

Beasley is a strong outside shooter, averaging 13.4 points while hitting 35.9% of his 3-pointers for the Jazz. The 6-foot-9 Vanderbilt has averaged 8.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, excelling on defense and on the boards while starting 41 of his 52 games.

The Lakers began their roster overhaul last month by trading Kendrick Nunn to Washington for Rui Hachimura, who is fitting in well so far as a wing option. Los Angeles also took a swing at acquiring Kyrie Irving, but Brooklyn sent the controversial guard to Dallas.

Toscano-Anderson and Jones played almost no role after joining the Lakers in the offseason.

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Los Angeles Lakers trade Patrick Beverley to Orlando Magic for Mo Bamba
Ben Rohrbach -- Yahoo! Sports NBA Writer

The Los Angeles Lakers are trading former All-Defensive guard Patrick Beverley and a second-round pick to the Orlando Magic in exchange for center Mo Bamba, according to Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes.

The Magic drafted Bamba sixth overall in 2018, but he never secured a role in their future. Orlando's crowded frontcourt — including Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Wendell Carter Jr. and Bol Bol, among others — made it difficult for the Magic to fully commit to Bamba's on-court development.

Bamba has averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game over his first five seasons. The 7-footer has shown an ability to space the floor on offense both vertically at the basket and out to the 3-point line, where he has shot 38.6% on 3.5 attempts per game over the past two seasons.

He has the athleticism to become a rim-protecting force, and opponents are shooting 3.9% worse than their season averages around the rim when Bamba is defending. At 24 years old, he remains an extremely raw talent.

Bamba's $10.3 million contract for next season is non-guaranteed if the Lakers release him by June 29.

The Lakers acquired Beverley from the Utah Jazz this past summer in exchange for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson, hoping the 34-year-old would provide defense and shooting to complement LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Beverley averaged 6.4 points (40/35/78 shooting splits), 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.9 minutes over 45 starts for the Lakers (25-30), failing to dramatically impact their record.

Beverley is under contract for $13 million this season and becomes a free agent at season's end.

A need for Bamba materialized prior to the NBA's trade deadline, as center Thomas Bryant requested a trade, per Haynes. Bryant's role had been minimized once Davis returned from injury late last month. The Lakers traded Bryant to the Denver Nuggets earlier on Thursday for reserve wing Davon Reed and second-round picks in 2025, 2026 and 2029. Bryant will back up two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic in Denver.

Bryant signed a one-year minimum contract with the Lakers this past summer.

The trade for Bamba completes an overhaul of the Lakers' 13th-place roster around James and Davis. On the eve of the deadline, they traded Russell Westbrook's $47.1 million expiring contract and their top-four protected first-round draft pick in 2027 to the Jazz in a three-team transaction with the Minnesota Timberwolves that returned D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley to Los Angeles.

In essence, the Lakers traded the expiring contracts of Westbrook, Beverley and Bryant, a 2027 first-round pick (top-four protected) and a future second-round pick for three second-round picks and the hope that Russell, Vanderbilt, Beasley and Bamba can help propel them to the playoffs. The Lakers trail the Portland Trail Blazers by two games for 10th place in the Western Conference and the final play-in tournament berth.

Only Vanderbilt is under guaranteed contract next season for the Lakers. The Lakers own a $16.5 million option on Beasley's contract for next season. Russell will become a free agent in July, barring an extension.

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