LeBron James continues defying his age and put up another spectacular performance on Thursday, notching a triple-double in the 114-93 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
The 36-year-old scored a game-high 27 points, adding 10 rebounds and 10 assists. On the way to the 96th triple-double of his career, James checked off another milestone by surpassing Wilt Chamberlain for third on the NBA’s all-time field goals made list.
James has made 12,691 buckets over his 17-year career and passed the Lakers legend with the second field goal he drained against Denver. After the game, James said the staggering number didn’t bear as much significance for him as the association with Chamberlain, his childhood hero.
“That does something for me, because I’m a guy who grew up reading about the game, studying the game, studying players past and present, and I wanted to see who was dominant in their era and laid the groundwork for young kids like myself who started to play the game at 9 years old,” he said.
James added the feat was a “very humbling” moment that made him ruminate on how far he has gone since his early days in Akron, Ohio.
“Defenses have definitely been trying to stop me from putting the ball in the basket throughout my career, and for the majority, I’ve been able to score a few buckets and have my name linked with some of the greats to ever play this game of basketball,” he said.
“Pretty cool feat.”
James leads Western Conference in first returns of All-Star Game voting
James has been in an unbelievable form since the start of the 2020-21 campaign, throwing his hat into the ring early for this year’s MVP race. Yet, the four-time NBA champion found himself trailing Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant in the first returns of the 2021 All-Star Game voting.
Durant led the league with around 2.3 million votes and held a minuscule advantage over James, who raked in 2.29 million votes.
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