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LeBron James is only competing against the future. The Los Angeles Lakers player continues to break individual records and make them unattainable. Just over a year after surpassing Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s scoring mark, LeBron James is making history again. He achieved it with a drive to the basket full of technique and power, the combination that has made him an unstoppable player. The play that remains forever recorded is a reverse and a layup on the board with the left hand. With that basket, The King reaches a stratospheric level: 40,000 points in the NBA regular season.
Fans had come to the Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers’ pavilion, with the certainty of seeing that historic moment. LeBron has scored at least 10 points in 1,205 consecutive games, which was what he needed. The entire array of celebrations was prepared and there was no need to wait long. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game against the Denver Nuggets, with 10:39 on the clock, the time came. In the next time-out, the public stood up to applaud the player, who made his characteristic gesture of crowning himself with the ball.
LeBron, 39, has achieved 40,000 points in a total of 1,475 games, with an average of more than 27 points. This is his 21st season in the NBA: his sixth with the Lakers after 11 in Cleveland and four in Miami. Furthermore, his consistency throughout his career, in which he has not suffered any major injuries, is impressive. He has achieved the last 10,000 points in exactly the same number of games (368) in which he achieved the first 10,000. To go from 10,000 to 20,000, it took 358 and to go from 20,000 to 30,000, another 381.
“Being the first player to do something, it’s pretty cool in this league, just knowing the history, the greats that have come through the league, and then you see some of the greats on the court tonight, it was cool to compete,” he said. James at the end of the game. “But for me, the main thing, as always, is winning, and I hate that it had to happen in a loss.” James finished the night with 26 points (12 of 20 from the field) and nine assists in a 114-124 loss to the Nuggets.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone spent five seasons with James as an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2010 and remains amazed at how he is able to continue playing at such a high level. “I don’t look at the numbers themselves, but you just have to marvel at the continued greatness,” Malone said.
High expectations
When LeBron James debuted in the NBA, an ad aired that mentioned Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant and said something like LeBron James would be next on that list. “I didn’t see that ad when it happened, but when I was watching it today, I was like what the hell? That expectation in an 18-year-old boy, it was crazy to think about.”
His record does not stop growing. In addition to the 40,000 points that make him the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, he has been the best player in the regular season four times, four times the best in the finals (the four in which he was champion: 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2020), three times the best of the All Star game (in which he has played for 20 years, another record). In NBA history, LeBron is second in minutes played, seventh in games played, fourth in assists, eighth in steals and 31st in rebounds. The previous notch on his revolver was the victory in the first NBA Cup, in which he was chosen as the best player of the tournament.
There is no active player who even exceeds 30,000 points. The one with the most is Kevin Durant (28,342), who is also in the final stretch of his career. For more than a decade, his brand is completely unattainable. Those who come from behind with a high scoring average, such as Luka Dončić, Joel Embiid or Jayson Tatum, would have to continue facing 13 and 15 more active seasons without injuries at a rate of 25 points per game to reach 40,000 points. French rookie Victor Wembanyama is the fourth fastest player in NBA history to reach 1,000 points, but as high as expectations are for him, it would take two decades to see if he can overshadow The King.