Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James continues to play at an extremely high level in his 21st NBA season, and that was again the case on Tuesday night in the blowout win over the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers jumped on the Jazz from the start, allowing them to cruise to victory and clinch Group A of the Western Conference in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. James only needed to play 24 minutes, sitting the entire fourth quarter, although he still turned in 17 points to go along with seven rebounds and nine assists.
It was another milestone night for the future Hall of Famer and NBA scoring champion as he became the first player in history to reach 39,000 career points.
After the win, he still had not processed what that means although he is grateful to be able to be the first to accomplish it.
“No, not really. I have not. Got congratulated by all my teammates and coaches and things of that nature. I haven’t had an opportunity to really I guess wrap my head around what that means. There’s been a lot of great players that have come across this league since the beginning of time, so many great scorers. To be able to accomplish something that’s the first of anything, I think that’s always pretty cool. It’s a wild moment, that’s for sure.”
LeBron, of course, passed another Lakers legend in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the league’s all-time scoring leader last February with the Cap in attendance at Crypto.com Arena.
With James continuing to play at such a high level, who knows how many more scoring milestones he can achieve. With the potential to get over 40,000 points and beyond, it will be a very long time, if ever, that someone takes the scoring title away from LeBron James.
Wood says James reaching 39,000 points is ‘incredible’
Someone who has gotten an up close look for the first time this season at the way James goes about his business on a daily basis is Christian Wood, who is amazed at what the soon-to-be 39 year old is still able to do nightly.
“He’s incredible, man. I can’t really even put into words. Me getting here and [seeing] him wake up in the mornings, the way he carries himself on the court, off the court, how he takes care of his body, his preparation before every game. It’s incredible to do what he does at 38, still. Score, rebound, assists. He should be in the MVP race. He’s 38 years old. What person do you know that’s 38 and doing what he does? Today, 39,000 points. It’s incredible.”
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