LeBron James Becomes Third Player in NBA History To Reach 36,000 Career Points
LeBron James continues to prove that he deserves the title of King James. During Tuesday's 132-123 victory against the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers star became the third-ever player in the history of the NBA to score 36,000 points, just behind Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Currently, Carmelo Anthony is the closest active player to reaching James' record, however, he is still over 8,000 points away from catching up. Others on the list are Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Dirk Nowitzki. Anthony currently has 27,844 points while Malone holds the No. 2 spot with 36,928 points and Abdul-Jabbar is on the top of the list at 38,387 points. According to ESPN Stats, James has been the youngest player to reach each thousand point milestone up to his current record of 36,000 points.
In a post-game interview, Lakers' assistant coach David Fizdale commented on watching James play, "He just played the five for four quarters and dominated at the position...This guy is unbelievable. I can't help it, man. We're very lucky as basketball people to get to watch what we're watching right now out of this man, and it's just beautiful."
Fans will be eager to see what number James will hit by the end of the season.
Congratulations to LeBron James (@KingJames) of the @Lakers on becoming the third player in NBA history to eclipse 36,000 points scored ? pic.twitter.com/6OdM7Vk5dG
— NBA (@NBA) December 29, 2021
LeBron James reached 36K points on Tuesday. He's the youngest to reach every round number milestone in points: 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K, 5K, 6K, 7K, 8K, 9K, 10K, 11K, 12K, 13K, 14K, 15K, 16K, 17K, 18K, 19K, 20K, 21K, 22K, 23K, 24K, 25K, 26K, 27K, 28K, 29K, 30K, 31K, 32K, 33K, 34K, 35K, 36K pic.twitter.com/ZIVZZcjGXZ
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 29, 2021
In other sports news, DeMar DeRozan has revealed why he chose to play for the Chicago Bulls.