LeBron James, who is already the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, has reached another major milestone as he makes history by becoming the first NBA player to score 40,000 career points. Also, James reached the milestone on the 62nd anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain‘s 100-point game. In the locker room after the game, he even posed for a photo while holding a paper with “40,000” and the date handwritten on it, an ode to Chamberlain’s iconic photo from March 2, 1962.
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The Los Angeles Lakers might have lost 124-114 to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday evening (March 2), but the team still had cause for celebration when LeBron James scored the 40,000th point of his career in the second quarter — a new milestone for the 39-year-old baller and one that no other NBA player has ever reached.
Speaking after the game at Crypto.com Arena, James, who finished the game with 26 points and garnered a 40,017 career-point total, said, “I feel like I’m still that threat out on the floor and I am still able to do the things that I was doing 10 years ago. And some things I was doing 20 years ago, which is weird to say.”
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When asked about the point total inching closer and closer earlier this week, James said, “No one has ever done it. And for me to be in this position at this point and time in my career, I think it’s pretty cool. Does it sit at the top of the things I’ve done in my career? No. But does it mean something? Of course. Absolutely. Why wouldn’t it?”
LeBron James continued, “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. Obviously, there’s a pecking order of which [accomplishments] are higher than others, but I would be lying to you if I said it doesn’t mean anything. Because it absolutely does.”
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Last season, LeBron James made history when he surpassed fellow NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s career scoring total of 38,387 points, becoming the league’s all-time scoring leader. Abdul-Jabbar held the title for nearly 40 years.
James was also asked if the record was something that he intentionally aimed for. He explained, “I never thought about getting the scoring record. 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 [his point total is] going to go up until I’m done playing.”
After making history again, LeBron James says his new record is not unbreakable. He shared, “Obviously we have a lot of great guys in our league that can score the ball, and if they were to stay healthy and they would play a long time, then they can eclipse it. And then, records are always meant to be broken. You can never say never for any record. At one point we said that Big O’s [Oscar Robertson’s] triple-double record would never be broken and Russ [Westbrook] did it, and now looks like Joker [Nikola Jokic] and Luka [Doncic], they’re doing it every night.”
He later added, “For me, the main thing is always the main thing, and that’s the win. I hated that it had to happen in the defeat, especially versus the team that plays extremely well. We played some good basketball tonight but [weren’t] able to close it out. So, bittersweet but enjoyed every moment tonight on the floor.”
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