LeBron James has now reached 40,000 career points. (Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
The NBA's all-time scoring champion, LeBron James, has reached a new milestone.
James is now the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points. The Los Angeles Lakers All-Stars officially crossed the threshold on Saturday night with their 124-114 loss to the Denver Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena.
James entered the game with 39,991 career points after scoring 31 points in Thursday's win over the Washington Wizards. He scored his first basket Saturday on a fast-break layup midway through the first quarter and followed it up with a 3-pointer just a few minutes later. James then opened the second quarter with a layup by two Nuggets players.
Then, two possessions later, James made another layup after passing Michael Porter Jr. to reach 40,000 career points.
James reached the threshold just over a year after setting the all-time NBA scoring record. On February 8th of last season, James scored his 38,388. Point and thus overtook the previous top scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the points list. Since then, he has steadily increased his total, making the record even more unattainable for future challengers.
“I mean, I can't sit here and say no, because obviously no one has ever done it before,” James said when asked Thursday night if the 40,000-point mark was important to him. “And for me, it’s pretty cool to be in this position and time in my career. Is it at the top of my career? No. But does it mean anything? Naturally. Absolutely.” . Why shouldn’t it?”
The 39-year-old James remains one of the game's top scorers in his 20th NBA season. Entering Saturday, he ranked 15th in scoring this season with 25.3 points per game. Since James averaged 20.9 points per game as a rookie in 2003-04, he has averaged at least 25 points in each of the following 19 NBA seasons. He was the league's leading scorer with 30 points per game in 2007-08 and has surpassed that 30-point average twice in his career.
Just two games ago, James scored 19 fourth-quarter points to lead the Lakers to erase a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 116-112 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. With 34 points, he led all scorers in this game. James finished Saturday's game with a team-high 26 points and nine assists while shooting 12 of 20 from the field.
As long as he stays healthy, James expects to continue to improve his winnings this season. The The Lakers are fighting for a playoff spot as the 10th team in the Western Conference standings and will continue to rely heavily on James as the season progresses. Whether he can keep them in the playoff race or even drag them back into contention to avoid the play-in tournament remains to be seen.