Hold Your Phone: NBA Historical Photos Reveal Stark Era Differences

LOS ANGELES – On Tuesday night, sports fans witnessed history as NBA superstar LeBron James shattered the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record to become the NBA’s highest scoring player of all time. Following this, one Twitter user posted a photo illustrating the stark differences between two of basketball’s greatest eras.

The Twitter post, which has over 177,000 likes as of Feb. 9, shows two back-to-back historical NBA photos.

The first shows Michael Jordan’s game-winning shot against the Utah Jazz that took the Chicago Bulls 5.2 seconds to go in the 1998 NBA Finals. This will be the last shot of MJ’s career before his second and final retirement.

Another photo in a viral Twitter post shows the moment LeBron broke the NBA’s all-time scorer record.

The reason this post is so popular on social media is the clear difference between NBA eras. All the fans in the photo of Michael Jordan are watching the game without mobile phones – in 1998 there were no smartphones.

Meanwhile, a photo of LeBron James shows just about every fan — with the exception of Nike CEO Phil Knight — capturing the moment on their phones rather than seeing it in real time with their own eyes.

Keep in mind that seats for Tuesday’s Lakers game were worth a whopping $181,500 for two seats, according to Ticketmaster.

CONNECTED: LeBron’s Historic Night: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sports World’s Reaction

And the moment was like in a movie. With 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the four-time NBA champion and 19-time All-Star broke the coveted record in the Lakers’ home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.

The King James finished the game with 38 points in the Lakers’ 133–130 loss to the Thunder to end the night with 38,390 career points.

The record was previously held by Abdul-Jabbar, who on April 5, 1984 stylishly overtook Wilt Chamberlain with his trademark skyhook. and this is a record that many considered unsurpassed.

While James and Abdul-Jabbar have been at odds over the years, the legendary Laker attended Tuesday night’s game to show their support.

KTTV contributed to this story.