LeBron James vs. Arvydas Sabonis: Career Scoring Comparison

We break down the scoring legacies of Arvydas Sabonis and LeBron James to determine who has the better numbers. Here you can compare their career totals, points per game, games of 40+ points, 50+, etc. and their year-by-year scoring averages side by side, both in the Regular Season and Playoffs.

LeBron James is among the NBA's all-time leaders in points and also has one of the highest career averages in league history, and here we compare his scoring stats with those recorded by Arvydas Sabonis.

By taking a look at their career numbers for points, the first conclusion one can arrive at is that LeBron James has better scoring stats than Arvydas Sabonis in averages and totals, both in the regular season and Playoffs. However, we won't stop there and we'll go into detail to analyze what these statistics are made up of, from how many games they had in each threshold (30+ points, 40+, 50+, etc.) to their season-by-season scoring averages.

Career Numbers
Who has the better scoring stats?

Points in the Regular Season

In his 22 NBA regular seasons played, LeBron James averages 15 points more than Arvydas Sabonis in his 7 seasons (27.0 points against 12.0), and he also scored a total of 36,555 points more (42,184 vs. 5,629).

Points Per Game			Seasons
LeBron James	27.0	+15.0	22
Arvydas Sabonis	12.0		7

Total Points			Seasons
LeBron James	42,184	+36,555	22
Arvydas Sabonis	5,629		7

Scoring Titles
LeBron James	1	+1
Arvydas Sabonis	0

Points by Thresholds

Career Shooting Stats Comparison

Year by Year Points Average Comparison

= NBA Scoring Leader

= NBA Champion

Regular Season

Rookie Season	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	20.9	+6.4	2004	79
Arvydas Sabonis	14.5		1996	73

Season 2	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	27.2	+13.8	2005	80
Arvydas Sabonis	13.4		1997	69

Season 3	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	31.4	+15.4	2006	79
Arvydas Sabonis	16.0		1998	73

Season 4	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	27.3	+15.2	2007	78
Arvydas Sabonis	12.1		1999	50

Season 5	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	30.0	+18.2	2008	75
Arvydas Sabonis	11.8		2000	66

Season 6	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	28.4	+18.3	2009	81
Arvydas Sabonis	10.1		2001	61

Season 7	Points per game		Year	Games
LeBron James	29.7	+23.6	2010	76
Arvydas Sabonis	6.1		2003	78

LeBron James' additional seasons:

* LeBron James played 15 seasons more than Arvydas Sabonis in the NBA. In those years—his seasons 8 to 22, from 2011 to 2025—he averaged 26.6 points in a total of 1,014 regular season games. During that period, his highest average was 30.3 ppg and his lowest 24.4.