Before [Los Angeles Lakers](https://lakersdaily.com/) forward LeBron James became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and cemented himself as one of the best players in the history of the league, he carved out a dominant stint playing basketball at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.
He saved some of his best basketball at that level for his junior and senior seasons, as he averaged 28-plus points, eight-plus rebounds and four-plus assists per game in each of those years, including exactly six assists per game as a junior.
James dominated from a scoring standpoint during his high school basketball career, but he recently suggested that he could have been far more dominant in that regard if he wanted to. He said that he could have averaged a whopping 50 points per game in his final high school seasons.
> “I never averaged more than 30 points in high school,” James said. “Think my highest average was like 27, 28 I believe. … It wasn’t about that. I could’ve averaged 50 points a game if I wanted to, probably my junior and senior year. But it was never about that. It was about, ‘How can I maximize my teammates? How can I get the most out of my teammates in order for all of us to be successful?'”
James’ comments only further solidifiy that he’s long been an incredibly unselfish player, and to this day, more than 20 years removed from his high school career, he still exudes unselfishness through his play at the NBA level.
He still has a unique flair for making players around him better, even at the ripe old age, at least by NBA standards, of 40. Across 70 games played in the 2024-25 regular season, his 22nd campaign in the league, he dished out 8.2 assists per game.
He led the Lakers in assists per game on a team that employed another gifted passer in guard Luka Doncic, and he ranked near the top of the league leaderboard in that category. Only five qualified players in the league dished out more dimes per contest than the NBA’s oldest player.
James has gotten plenty of flowers over the years for his scoring chops, and rightfully so, as scoring is the name of the game and necessary to win at any level of the sport. However, James’ unselfishness as a passer has been crucial to all of the collective success that he’s enjoyed as a basketball player.
Hopefully, if James opts not to retire and returns to the NBA for his 23rd season in the league, he will rack up plenty more pretty passes and continue to play like one of the more unselfish stars the game has seen.