LeBron James has engraved his name deeper into the annals of basketball history, becoming the first player to cross the 50,000 career points mark — regular season and playoffs included. The Los Angeles Lakers star became the first player in history to eclipse 38,000 points with the milestone coming during Tuesday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Crypto. com Arena.
James wasted no time making history in the game, entering one point shy the mark after scoring 17 points against the Clippers. The 40-year-old veteran took a pass from Luka Dončić and drained a smooth 25-foot three-pointer, igniting the crowd as he advanced to 50,002 points.
An already all-time leading scorer in N.B.A. history, James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s previous record of 38,387 regular-season points in 2023, a mark that lasted nearly 40 years. His most recent milestone adds to that lead, as he’s now nearly 6,000 points ahead of Abdul-Jabbar’s total of 44,149.
Fourth on the all-time career scoring list behind James are Karl Malone (41,689), the late Kobe Bryant (39,283) and Michael Jordan (38,279). And the only person among active players even close to it is Kevin Durant, just above 35,000.
Now at age 40, in his 22nd season of play in the NBA, James still hasn’t outlived his usefulness, yet in fact is more useful than ever before, time and time again dismantling the opponent and leading the league in every statistical quarter.
