Nike Founder's Reaction to LeBron James' Record-Breaking Moment Goes Viral

There is capturing the moment and there is living the moment and as cameras were trained on LeBron James at the moment he beat the NBA points record, Nike founder Phil Knight is seen quietly enjoying the historic moment while those around him scramble to record the achievement on their cell phones.

In what will surely become an iconic photo, Knight is sitting with James' two sons at courtside when the Los Angeles Lakers star surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and became the NBA's all-time scoring leader.

While everyone sitting behind the basket wanted to capture the historic moment at the Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night, cameras were trained on James as he hit with a fadeaway shot from the top of the key.

The photo has now been viewed millions of times on social media as it quickly becomes one of the most shared pictures of the moment James broke the record.

Pandemonium followed as James celebrated the moment and then the game was stopped for 10 minutes as the basketball star was joined by his wife and children on court and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar handed James the ball in a symbolic gesture of handing over the record, after nearly four decades.

The photo has caused a debate as to whether it is better to document the moment or experience it as many commented about what they feel is the best way to see history in the making.

Daley Ervin, who posted the photo on Twitter, captioned it: "Phil Knight (Nike founder) is the only one enjoying the moment without his phone."

Among those who replied was one person, who pointed out: "maybe he doesn't own a phone."

Ervin was quick to come back to them admitting that could be the case, writing: "Ha! Very true."

Others were not so sure about the sentiment of his caption, with one tweeting: "Such a weird take. You think LeBron's sons (or any other fans recording the moment on their phones) are enjoying the moment any less?"

While another wrote: "There are at least two other women also watching without their phone."

After more than 11,000 likes to his post and nearly 1,000 retweets, Ervin took to Twitter again to admit: "That blew up."

He added: "The point was about being present—that's all. It was a good reminder for me."

Ironically, James' feat was not enough to stop the Lakers going down 130-133 to Oklahoma City Thunder.

The record-breaking moment was watched by an average of three million viewers to TNT, which is the network's largest non-Opening Night regular-season audience in five years.

Sports Media Watch have said that the game is now the ninth most-watched game of the 2022-23 season.

Every game that had more viewers was played on Christmas Day, Opening Night or shown on ABC.

Topping the viewing charts is the Milwaukee Bucks' visit to Boston on Christmas Day which had a peak of 6.08 million viewers—1.33 million more than the clash between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors, which was also over the Christmas period.

Do you have a tip on a sports story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the NBA? Let us know via entertainment@newsweek.com.