Living, playing basketball legend LeBron James has scaled another hitherto unmounted peak. The 39-year-old from Akron, Ohio breached the 40,000 NBA career points mark on Sunday (March 3, 2024), becoming the first and only player in the world to have achieved the feat. (More Basketball News)
James, now into his 21st NBA season, is pushing the limits of what can be accomplished in the sport and is peerless on many counts. He had passed another legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark of 38,387 points on February 7, 2023 to become the league’s leading scorer. He attained 39,000 points on November 21 and has now gone on to extend the record by another notch.
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The Los Angeles Lakers titan got to the landmark by driving past Denver Nuggets' Michael Porter Junior and sinking a layup with 10 minutes, 39 seconds left in the second quarter of the NBA 2023-24 clash.
He got a standing ovation at the next timeout, and there was an in-arena video presentation, before and after which James raised the ball over his head to acknowledge the applause.
James is the only NBA player to have notched up at least 10,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists. He has also played the second-most regular season and most playoff minutes in the league's history.
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Lakers coach Darvin Ham was a young basketball enthusiast when Abdul-Jabbar was at the fag end of his career and the then kid assumed the record would never be challenged, let alone broken in the way James did.
“But here we are,” Ham said before the game. “It’s a testament to Bron, just the time and resources he spends on himself, making sure not only he is healthy but he’s healthy at a high level.”
(With AP inputs)
