Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is set to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer in one of his next two games, and being in the arena for such a historic night would be an unforgettable experience. The problem, of course, is that we can't know for certain which game he will break the record.
Judging by ticket prices, however, fans certainly have a guess.
James needs to score 36 more points to pass Abdul-Jabbar's record of 38,387. Given his current average of 30 points per game, James is likely to become the new standard-bearer either on Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder or on Thursday vs. the Milwaukee Bucks. Both are Lakers home games, and getting into Crypto.com Arena for the milestone night is going to cost you a pretty penny.
As James approached the record, ticket prices for the two games skyrocketed in recent weeks. But now, as Thursday appears most likely to be the record-breaker based on the numbers, the needle has moved significantly.
Last week, according to data from ticket marketplace Vivid Seats, the average ticket cost for Tuesday's game against the Thunder had risen to $1,152 -- an incredible 390 percent increase since the first day of the 2022-23 season. The cheapest "get-in" price was $291. On Tuesday morning, however, the prices had fallen to an average of $605 and a "get-in" mark of $111. Seems more than reasonable for what still could be a historic night.
As you can imagine, that means the prices for Thursday's game against Milwaukee have skyrocketed even further.
Getting into Thursday's game against the Bucks will cost even more than it did last week. The average price has risen from $1,302 to $1,879, nearly a 300 percent jump from the beginning of the season, while the "get-in" cost went from $476 last week to $496 on Tuesday.
This game bears a little extra significance since the Bucks and Lakers are the only two franchises that Abdul-Jabbar played for in his 20-year career. Accordingly, it is the second-hottest ticket of the season behind the season-opener against the Clippers, per Vivid Seats.
| Lakers ticket prices | Original Avg. | Current Avg. | % Increase | "Get-in" Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Feb. 7 vs. Thunder | $235 | $605 | +157% | $111 |
Feb. 9 vs. Bucks | $474 | $1,879 | +296% | $496 |
If you were lucky enough to forecast that James would break the record on Thursday and bought a ticket on the first day of the season, you could have saved almost $1,500. Also, if you weren't necessarily committed to seeing the game in person and decided to sell the ticket, you could make a significant profit on the secondary market.
Currently in his 20th NBA season, the 38-year-old James is putting up the third-highest scoring average of his career to go along with 8.5 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game as he attempts to navigate the Lakers into the postseason. He scored a season-high 48 points against the Houston Rockets in January, and his career high is a 61-point performance against the Charlotte Hornets in 2014.
