LeBron first player to reach 40,000 points
LOS ANGELES — LeBron James reached 40,000 points Saturday night, still going strong in his 21st NBA season as he tries to put the career scoring record out of reach.
James drove past Michael Porter Jr. and hit a layup with 10:39 left in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 124-114 loss to the Nuggets for the historic basket.
“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 did it in 1,475 regular-season games, reaching double-digit points in each of the last 1,205 of them. He has largely avoided major injuries in that time, while also playing another 3 ¹/₂ seasons worth of games in the playoffs en route to four titles in 10 NBA Finals appearances, all with unfathomable pressure placed on him to be the next transcendent player before ever stepping on the court as a professional.
“For the first time in a long time, I’ve seen the commercial that was played before my first game,” James said. “I think they mentioned all the greats to ever play the game of basketball, like Big O and Michael and Kareem and Kobe, and forgot who all else was in that commercial. And then it was like, ‘the next one, LeBron James.’
“I didn’t see that commercial when it happened, but when I was watching it today, I was like what the hell? That expectation on an 18-year-old kid like that, that was insane to think about.”
Even with all that, James put in the work and has now accomplished something that seemed impossible.
James’ relentless march saw him pass the previous record of Kareem AbdulJabbar’s 38,387 points on Feb. 7, 2023 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But James did all that scoring without necessarily wanting that to be his trademark. He is fourth in career assists with 10,847, picking up another nine against Denver, and his average of 7.35 helpers per game ranks in the top 25.
But on this night, it was the defending champion Nuggets who were victorious.
Denver was led by Nikola Jokic, who had 35 points and 10 rebounds as the Nuggets closed the game on a 16-6 run for their sixth straight win.