Ticket Prices Hit Stratosphere to See LeBron Smash Record

You can pay $69K to see LA Lakers forward become NBA's all-time scoring leader
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 7, 2023 7:33 AM CST
With LeBron's Record in Reach, Tickets Soar to $69K
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (6) reacts after being called for a foul in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the New Orleans Pelicans in New Orleans on Saturday.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

If you'd planned on catching a Los Angeles Lakers game in the near future, you might want to hold off for a few days, unless you're independently wealthy and really want to see history being made. CBS MoneyWatch reports that ticket prices for Tuesday's game at Crypto.com Arena, where the Lakers will play the Oklahoma City Thunder, are in the hundreds and even thousands for a single seat. As of Tuesday morning, the cheapest set of loge-level tickets started at around $500 and went up to more than $2,000 on Vivid Seats, with the very best courtside seats going for as much as nearly $70,000 each. The person we can (mostly) thank for that: LeBron James, who's on the cusp of breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record.

Jabbar's record: 38,387, reached in 1989. James needs at least 36 points to top that. The younger player says he never thought he'd be in this position. "It's still mind-boggling to myself," James tells ESPN. "For sure, I never said I wanted to be an all-time leader in scoring. That's never been, like, a dream of mine, and to sit here and actually be on the brink of it happening, it's pretty crazy." As for the high ticket prices, CBS notes those are also driven by demand, as there are plenty of affluent Californians who can afford to pony up the cash to watch James take the scoring crown.

"People just enjoy being present when they see history, especially when you're talking about a record you'll likely never going to see occur again in our lifetime," says Washington University sports business professor Patrick Rishe. One person who's expected to be in the building when James surpasses the record: Jabbar himself, Lakers play-by-play announcer Bill Macdonald tells CBS Sports. If James doesn't rack up those 36 needed points on Tuesday, he'll have another chance on Thursday, when the Lakers take on the Milwaukee Bucks. (More LeBron James stories.)

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