Love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect the talent of LeBron James. On Saturday night, at home in LA against the Denver Nuggets, James became the first NBA to score 40,000 points.
With 10:40 left in the second quarter, James drove to the basket to put up a layup to take him to 40,000 points.
You can watch the historic moment here:
James entered the game only nine points away from the milestone, at 39,991 points. In his 21st year in the NBA, the milestone is an impressive one for the perennial all-star. James was asked a few days ago what the 40,000-point record would mean to him.
“I mean, I can’t sit here and say no because, of course,” James said, per the Athletic. “No one has ever done it. And for me to be in this position at this point and time in my career, I think it’s pretty cool. Does it sit at the top of the things I’ve done in my career? No. But does it mean something? Of course. Absolutely. Why wouldn’t it?”
All-time scoring leader
James is already the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. He broke the all-time scoring record on Feb. 7, 2023. He passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 career points) for the record, per ESPN.
You can see a cool timeline of James’ path to 40,000 points, put together by ESPN, here.
Behind James and Abdul-Jabbar, the next players on the all-time scoring list are:
- Karl Malone at 36,928 points.
- Kobe Bryant at 33,643 points.
- Michael Jordan at 32, 292 points.
As of Saturday, the Lakers currently sit at 10th place in the Western Conference, holding the last spot for the play-in tournament. They are one spot below the Golden State Warriors (though they are both 9.5 wins out of first) and one spot above the Utah Jazz, who sit at 11th and are 5.5 wins behind them.