Headed into the NBA’s slate of games on Tuesday, six players in league history had scored at least 30,000 career points: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Dirk Nowitzki. But right at the end of the first quarter in Cleveland’s game against San Antonio, LeBron James officially joined that club.
James got the ball as the Cavs were playing for the final possession. He dribbled down the clock, pulled up from just inside the three-point line, and buried what will go down as an historic jumper.
Welcome to the 30K club, LeBron James! https://t.co/7KFiQft8XJ
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) January 24, 2018
The crazy thing about this achievement is that James achieved it before anyone else in league history in terms of age. At 33 years and 23 days old, James is the youngest player to score their 30,000th career point, breaking a record that Bryant held at 34 years and 104 days, according to Brian Martin of NBA.com. Additionally, James reached this mark in 1,107 games.
With James, though, he’s reaching this point with no clear end in sight for his basketball career — while he has plenty of miles on his basketball odometer, he keeps in tremendous shape and has not shown any signs of slowing down. He’s said that his children will ultimately play a role in deciding when he hangs them up, but otherwise, he’s left his future wide open.
This isn’t to say that he’ll ultimately pass Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 career points and become the most prolific scorer in league history, but hey, he’s doing pretty well for himself.
