LeBron James’ Pursuit Of NBA Scoring Record Pushes Demand For Two Lakers Games Next Week
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LeBron James is in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s neighborhood and soon he’ll be kicking down the door.
After posting a 28-point triple-double in the Lakers’ 129-123 overtime win over the Knicks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, James is now 89 points behind Kareem. The Lakers (24-28) visit the Indiana Pacers (24-28) Thursday night.
As fans do the math on possible dates when James will break the record, ticket prices for two games next week are skyrocketing, according to ticketing technology company Logitix.
Logitix has assessed what fans are paying for the Lakers’ home games against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 7 and the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9.
Since January 25, fans have paid an average of $681.26 per ticket for the game against the Thunder and $674.17 for the game against the Bucks. Prior to Jan. 25, fans only paid $228.27 per ticket for the Thunder game and $397.25 for the Bucks game. On average, fans paid $241.52 per ticket for all Lakers home games in January.
Assessing sales on February 1 alone, fans paid $598.03 per ticket for the Thunder game and $963.09 for the Bucks game. No other Lakers game sees a significant impact on price.
“This type of box office trend is great fun to watch as fans speculate about when they might witness history,” said Greg Nortman, president of Logitix. “Our analytics team at Logitix will see price changes in real time as LeBron gets closer to the record. Right now, it seems like a toss-up if he breaks the record on Feb. 7 or Feb. 9. If LeBron puts in 50 tonight, this trend will immediately switch to increased demand for the 7. If he scores 15 tonight, I’m sure we’ll see prices go up for the 9 play. If he continues to score right on his average, demand for both games will remain high for the next few days.
Logitix evaluated the tickets sold on multiple ticket exchanges. Their data does not include list prices or ticketing fees.
James, who turned 38 on Dec. 30, is averaging 30.2 points per game. If he had played against Brooklyn on Monday, he would have been able to break the NBA scoring record on Saturday in New Orleans. But he missed that game with pain in his left foot.
That pushed the timeline back to Tuesday at home against the Thunder, or possibly February 9 at home against the Bucks.
“I will,” James told reporters. “It’s only a matter of time when I’m going to do it. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be in this league for at least a few more years.