During Saturday’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, LeBron James became the first NBA player to reach 40,000 points. In a video published on X, “LeBron James 40,000 points” displayed on screens surrounding the Crypto.com Arena during his historic moment, with the crowd cheering.
The NBA great came into Saturday’s game needing nine points to reach the milestone. His euphoria was cut short as the Nuggets defeated the Lakers 124-114, with James scoring 26 points on the night.
“Being the first player to do something, it’s pretty cool in this league, just knowing the history, the greats that’s come through the league, and then you see some of the greats on the floor tonight, it was great to compete,” James said. “But for me, the main thing, as always, is to win, and I hated that it had to happen in a defeat.”
James has scored double-digit points in all 1,475 regular-season games, including the last 1,205, according to GPB.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar held the NBA scoring record for more than 38 years, with 38,387 points in his career. But history was accomplished last February, when James eclipsed the former basketball star to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ star reached the coveted summit during their 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Before the game, James had 38,352 career scoring points and needed 36 to overtake Abdul-Jabbar as the number one player, according to ESPN. The NBA champion recorded 38 points.
Here’s why his current record will be difficult to break:
Aside from James, there are only seven active players with over 20,000 points. Kevin Durant, 35, is the next-highest active player after James, with 28,342 points, about 12,000 below James’ total. And his age may not suit him.
According to the Washington Post, Durant’s lifetime average of 27.3 points per game surpasses James’ by 0.2 points. However, if Durant maintains his current average, he will need to play in almost every game until the end of the 2028-29 season to achieve 40,000 points. He’d be forty at the time. Durant playing at that age is not entirely unrealistic. The part about playing every game for five years or more is obviously unreasonable; Durant hasn’t played all 82 games in a season since 2009-10, when he was 21.