When a player is at the level LeBron James has been for as long as he has been there, it’s only a matter of time before the record books begin to change.
For the majority of James’ career, he has been changing the record books and he took another step recently.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ recent win against the New Orleans Pelicans was all about Anthony Davis’ return to his previous team and he delivered by setting a new record for most points in a player’s first game against his former team. What fell under the radar was James hitting another milestone.
With a three-pointer in the fourth quarter, James became the fourth player in NBA history to reach the 33,000 career point mark, via NBA TV:
LeBron passed 33,000 career points with this ????!#LakeShow pic.twitter.com/apg78IUU4f
— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 28, 2019
James joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Kobe Bryant as the only other players with 33,000 career points. Coincidentally, all of the players on this list played for the Lakers at some point in their careers which just goes to show the historical greatness of this franchise.
James finished the contest at 33,008 points — just 635 points behind Bryant for third on the all-time scoring list. Assuming James stays healthy, he will surpass that mark later in the 2019-20 NBA season.
He still has a ways to go to catch Abdul-Jabbar and Malone, but if he continues at this level for a couple more seasons, he could be the first player to truly challenge the all-time points mark that Abdul-Jabbar has held for decades.
The impressive part about James is that he’s never been considered a true scorer in the way that the others ahead of him are. His all-around game is so amazing that it becomes easy to forget he’s been averaging 25 points per game since his second NBA season.
It is that level of consistency that very few can match and have James at the historical place he sits at now.