LeBron James hit another career milestone tonight, becoming the first NBA player ever to score 40,000 points. The Lakers star needed just nine points coming into the game against Denver and reached the historic mark with a layup early in the second quarter (video link from Dave McMenamin of ESPN).
The game stopped briefly, and the Lakers honored James with a video tribute, tweets Johan Buha of The Athletic.
After scoring 31 points on Thursday, James talked to Buha about what it means to him to reach a scoring figure that was once thought to be impossible.
“To be able to accomplish things in this league, with the greatest players to ever play in this league, the NBA, this has been a dream of mine and to hit feats and have milestones throughout my career, they all mean something to me. Absolutely,” James said. “Obviously, there’s a pecking order of which ones are higher than others, but absolutely. I would be lying to you if I said it doesn’t mean anything. Because it absolutely does.”
James became the league’s leading scorer on February 7 of last year when he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career total of 38,387 points, with the Lakers’ legendary center on hand to witness the achievement. James remains an elite scorer even after turning 39 in December. He’s averaging 25.3 PPG in 53 games this season and hasn’t been below 25.0 PPG since his rookie year.
James told Buha that he hasn’t considered how high his point total might climb before he retires.
“I never thought about getting the scoring record,” he said. “It just happened organically. I played the game the right way and went out and played the game and let the game come to me and the scoring record happened organically for me. It was never a goal of mine when I came into the league, like I wanted to be the all-time leading scorer. But I’m still playing. And I can still score the ball so it’s going to go up until I’m done playing.”
Congrats LeBron, an amazing accomplishment.
Congratulations, LeBron, on this amazing milestone, from a Clevelander and a Cavs’ fan. Thanks for all the memories. Best of luck to you and your family.
Greatest of all time period. Who else got 40k?
Because playing more games than anyone else makes you the goat?
Dude has been dominating for 4 years past the point MJ for burnout a second time. It’s over dawg
You just have to let the Jordan stans be. Nothing you say will ever breakthrough.
Did anyone ever say Robert Parrish was the greatest of all time?
Lebron is also 1st in turnovers
And will be 1st in missed shots
He’s 4-10 in finals
All his finals appearances were against the weakest Eastern Conference of all time
He’s great not the goat
Nor is Jordan the GOAT. Jordan wasn’t even good enough to get to the finals in his first 6 seasons. Losing in an earlier round is a bigger L than getting there and losing. Jordan was supposed to win every finals he appeared in while LeBron was the underdog in five. Yeah LeBron lost one finals where his team was favored but he also won one where his team was the heavy underdog.
In my opinion there’s six players that can be in consideration for the GOAT. LeBron, Jordan, Kareem, Magic, Duncan and Russell. I’m not going into it all in the comments section as it would be an entire article but I’m also not putting one above the other.
Like I said above man you just got to let the Jordan sickofants be. They have changed and censored the parts of the history they don’t like to not only not count against him but to be used as an argument for why he is the GOAT.
lol Lebron did not make the playoffs four years that is not better than Jordan. also Jordan stayed and made his teammates better and made Scottie a star . LeBron in other hand jumped from
Team to team to join stars and also demanded trading young up coming players and all the team future assist to get established superstars teammate(s) and role players . Lebron also does not put effort in defense ever since he left Miami . MJ always played hard both sides of the court. Lebron is a top 10 of all time , MJ is the GOAT.
LeBron number 6
Jordan’s defense was overrated, he was a good defender yes but he often was assigned to the opposing teams second or third best offensive threat. Ron Harper, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman did all the heavy lifting for the Bulls on defense.
9 team all first defensive and 1 DPOY and 3 steal leader is not overrated defense . Lebron had 6 all defensive first team 0 steal leader 9 DPOY his fans overate his defense on all position .
“Jordan stayed and made his teammates better.” Isn’t he the guy who “retired” (allegedly) less than a month before the preseason started? So he either quit or was suspended but that’s not as bad as leaving at the start of the offseason in free agency a right he earned. Not quitting right before the season started. Lousy teammate, worse human.
Honestly it’s a shame that nobody on tv can say what really happened. He had an emotional crisis and went to go play baseball because his off the court gambling issues got his father murdered. That’s what happened but nobody on TV can talk about it because Jordan would sue Disney or Fox or wherever the person worked for defamation of character to the Jordan Brand.
100% agree
If Jordan played 20+ years he would have 50k
Nobody stopped him so why didn’t he
You musta not been around at the end of Jordan’s career when he played with the Wiz. Dude was washed. Wudda never even sniffed Kareem’s record with a few more years…
Congrats, Mr. Dumbing-Us-Down. Unfortunate about the loss; seems to be a pattern though – individual achievement coinciding with your team underachieving. I guess there’s nothing left to say than to call Nikola, Jamal, and the rest of the Denver organization your respective daddies.
Look, I’m no Lakers fan, but are we really going to criticize LeBron when his team lost to a top 5 squad in the NBA? It’s not like they just blew a game against the Nets or something
lebron is a snooze fest now boring
Probably never getting passed with load management and injuries. Then again with the lack of defense, guys may average 40-50pts.
“Lack of defense” is the easiest way to spot a guy who does not watch ball
LBJ!!!
What a legend!!!
Someone on Twitter put this in perspective. To reach 40,000 points, a player needs to average 24.4 ppg for 82 games for 20 seasons. Whether you like LeBron or not, this is an incredible feat.
Played a full season when? Taking games off every year
uhh
Reading comprehension can be really tough for some haha
Some hilarious Bron fans on here. Delusional but hilarious.
“I never thought about getting the scoring record,” he said. Yeah, right. It’s all he’s thought about. Well…that and flopping.
Funniest thing I read today is Rich Paul saying Bronny will not look at draft position but how teams will engage in drafting him. Of course if lakers draft him there will be a big out cry about it. Not only from Lebron haters but from laker fans for wasting a roster spot on Bronny.
Weakest era ever
“He’s averaging 25.3 PPG in 53 games this season and hasn’t been below 25.0 PPG since his rookie year.”
That’s called consistent. Takes care of himself. So has longevity. A true pro.
Best offensive player ever……….
IQ player, Top scorer, Best ast wing, big ever. Gets OR, is a play maker.
He can run a gm, manage a gm. The Best