LeBron says the 300-point Olympic milestone is nice, but he wants the gold: "I'm here for the bigger picture"

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James entered Wednesday's game against South Sudan six points away from scoring 300 Olympic career points.

With a 12-point performance during Team USA's 103-86 win over the South Sudanese national team, James entered the record books as only the third American basketball player to score at least 300 career Olympic points while playing for the Stars and Stripes.

After the game, James brushed aside the accolade, telling reporters that he only has one goal in Paris: to win the gold for the United States.

"I'm here to win and win the gold," said James. "And that's my only mindset. It's not even about scoring, it's not about any of the stats, all the stats that pretty much don't show up, you know, closing out, you know, getting, you know, hockey assists if possible, just stopping guys from crashing the glass."

Captain LeMerica

LeBron has made a buzz in this Olympic stint. When the team was still preparing for the games, the four-time NBA champion was voted by his teammates as the best player in training camp. During their exhibition contests, James emerged as this team's version of Captain America with his heroics against South Sudan and Germany. LBJ was also named as the flag bearer for the U.S., becoming the first U.S. men's basketball player to be accorded that honor.

King James then opened his 2024 Olympics campaign with an impressive 21-7-9 game, playing with a lot of intensity and energy. After that game, the basketballreference.com website added 'Captain LeMerica' as a new nickname. Now, he joins Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony as the only players in Team USA history to score at least 300 points in his Olympic career.

"So it's definitely an honor any time you hear your name in it, in any type of record books, but at the end of the day, I'm here for a bigger picture, for sure," added the NBA's all-time scoring leader.

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Old but Gold

That bigger picture is Team USA reclaiming basketball supremacy after finishing a dismal 4th place in last year's FIBA World Cup. As a result of that debacle, USA Basketball assembled the so-called 'Avengers' squad to represent the United States in the Paris Olympics.

King James was one of the first to express interest in playing for the Paris Olympics team . It was also reported that he called up multiple superstars to join him in the quest to re-establish the United States as the top basketball country in the world.

At 39 years and 194 days old, LeBron isn't just the oldest player on the current Team USA, he is the oldest U.S. men's basketball player to ever play in the Olympics. But despite his age, James has been doing heavy lifting for the Americans as he is second in scoring (16.5 PPG), second in rebounding (7.0 RPG), and first in assists (7.0 APG). He may not care about the numbers, but there's no question that he needs to put up solid numbers if the Red, White, and Blue are to win the gold medal.

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