LeBron James Ties Kobe Bryant's Triple-Double Record With the Lakers

LeBron James continues to make history with the Los Angeles Lakers. On Sunday night, James [...]

By Brian Jones

LeBron James continues to make history with the Los Angeles Lakers. On Sunday night, James recorded 34 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists in the Lakers' 122-114 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. With that stat total, James now has 21 triple-doubles as a member of the Lakers and that ties him with the late Kobe Bryant for the third-most in franchise history.

It's an amazing feat considering James has only been with the team for two seasons. In fact, he has only played in 111 games as a member of the Lakers while Bryant spent 20 years in LA. But this isn't the first time this season James has either matched for passed Bryant in the record books. Right before Bryant died in a helicopter crash along with his daughter Gianna and seven other people, James passed Bryant on the NBA's all-time scoring list. Bryant congratulated James on Instagram which would be the final Instagram post before his death.

James and Bryant were close friends and when the Lakers paid tribute to the five-time NBA champion on Jan. 31, James gave an emotional speech.

"I look at this as a celebration tonight," James said. "This is a celebration of the 20 years of the blood, the sweat, the tears, the broken down body...the determination to be as great as he could be. Tonight we celebrate the kid that came here at 18 years of age, retired at 38 and became probably the best dad that we've seen over the last three years. Tonight is a celebration.

"Kobe is a brother to me," James continued. "From the time I was in high school watching him from afar, to getting in this league at 18 and watching him up close, all the battles that we had throughout my career, the one thing that we always shared was that determination to just want to win, to just want to be great. The fact that I'm here now means so much to me. I want to continue, along with my teammates, his legacy. Not only for this year, but for as long as we can play this game of basketball that we love, because that's what Kobe Bryant would want. So in the words of Kobe Bryant, 'Mamba out.' But in the words of us, not forgotten. Live on, brother."

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