“Never thought it would be surpassed” – Tiger Woods lauds LeBron James for beating Kareem’s NBA scoring record

LeBron James recently surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 points to become the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. Following this, golf legend Tiger Woods has come out to laud the NBA star for his achievement.

Woods was speaking ahead of this week’s Genesis Invitational when he said that he never thought ’Kareem’s record would be surpassed’. The golfer, making his return to the PGA Tour, went on to heap praise on “King James” for the “consistency and the longevity” of his career. A long-time Laker fan himself, Woods also praised Kareem for his long-standing record.

Speaking to the media at Riviera Country Club, Tiger Woods said:

“What he (James) accomplished is absolutely incredible of just the durability, the consistency and the longevity. I never thought — I grew up watching Kareem here, never saw him play in Milwaukee, but he was the cat, that’s all I remember, the Showtime Lakers and watching Cat run down there with goggles and hit the sky hook, that record we never thought it would be surpassed.”

The ace golfer added:

“But what LeBron is doing — but also the amount of minutes he’s playing, no one’s ever done that at that age, to be able to play all five positions, that’s never been done before at this level for this long.”

James reset the record as he hit 38,388 points in the game against the OKC Thunder at Crypto.com Arena on Feb 8. Apart from the golf legend, millions around the world celebrated the four-time MVP’s record. However, it is pertinent to note that this isn’t the first time Woods has lauded James. Being an NBA fan himself, the golfer has spoken about the basketball legend’s game in the past.

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Tiger Woods on Tom Brady's retirement announcement

Tiger Woods’ ‘GOAT talk’ didn’t end there. In the same press conference, the golfer went on to speak about NFL legend Tom Brady. Addressing the star quarterback’s recent retirement announcement, Woods said that he was in awe of the player’s career longevity. The PGA Tour star heaped praise on the player and his ‘greatness.’

Tiger Woods said:

“I don’t know how —Tom playing as long as he did and the level that he played at was phenomenal. We just have to just look at him as an outlier of how great that was. I remember as a kid growing up watching John Elway speak and just cried that I could do it but my body won’t allow me to do it anymore. He won the last two Super Bowls, but he could just not physically do it anymore.”

The golfer went on to draw parallels between his and Brady’s positions.

He continued:

“I’ve got to that point a couple times where you kind of think about it, but our sport, there’s no contact, I don’t have 300-pound guys falling on top of me. It’s just a matter of shooting the lowest score. We have the ability to pick and choose and play a little bit longer. We’ve seen — my hero, Arnold Palmer, like all of us, hell, he played in 50 straight Masters, 50 straight. I’m not even 50 years old yet and he played in 50 straight Masters.”

It is pertinent to note that Tiger Woods made the comments ahead of his return to the PGA Tour. The legendary golfer is set to tee off on Thursday at the Genesis Invitational. This will be the 15-time major winner's first competitive event appearance since the Open in July.