By Basketball hero LeBron James is the NBA’s all-time top scorer, but he isn’t finished yet.
The American became the first player to pass the 40,000 regular season points mark on 2 March 2023, taking his total tally beyond 48,000 career points total between the regular season and playoffs.
This season has also seen him become the first man to lift the NBA Cup, after his Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers 123-109 in the final of the NBA In-Season Tournament on Saturday 9 December 2023.
The Lakers star, who turned 39 on 30 December 2024, overtook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in career points during a memorable game on Tuesday 7 February 2023, scoring 38 to give himself a total of 38,390 regular season points, in a 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Abdul-Jabbar had held the record with 38,387 points in regular season games.
Three-time Team USA Olympian and two-time gold medal winner LeBron has since continued to extend his record. He moved on to 38,652 regular season points at the conclusion of the 2022/23 season, but surpassed the 39,000 mark early in the 2023/24 campaign, and progressed beyond 40,000 on 2 March in a defeat to the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.
Three-time Olympic gold medallist Kevin Durant moved above Moses Malone into 10th place in December 2023 and is the only other active player in the top 10.
Durant has since overtaken fellow Olympic gold medallists Carmelo Anthony and Shaquille O’Neal this season to go eighth on the all-time list, but he has a long way to go to reach Wilt Chamberlain in seventh place.
James also holds the record for playoff points with 8,023 (following the 2022/2023 season), according to the NBA.
Retired great Michael Jordan is second on the playoff points list with 5,987.
In a sport where discussion rages as to who is the greatest of all time – with Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird all in the mix – two-time Olympic gold medallist James certainly advanced his cause in the conversation by surpassing Abdul-Jabbar’s regular-season total.
