Add another line on to LeBron James career resume and application to be the best basketball player of all time.
He became the youngest player in NBA history (33 years and 24 days) to reach 30,000 points.
He reached the milestone late in the 1st quarter of the Cavaliers 114-102 loss to the Spurs in San Antonio on Tuesday night with a pull-up jumper on Danny Green:
Welcome to the 30K club, LeBron James! https://t.co/7KFiQft8XJ
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) January 24, 2018
He is the 4th quickest in terms of games to reach the milestone.
#Congrats to LeBron James for becoming the 4th fastest player to 30K points pic.twitter.com/SGAMDnNGZH
— LegendOfWinning (@LegendOfWinning) January 24, 2018
LeBron is the 7th player to score 30,000 points in a career, joining Dirk Nowitzki, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Congrats to LeBron James!! The newest member of the 30k club. pic.twitter.com/k7tbIcehmE
— Jeek Nation (@JeekNation) January 24, 2018
Here is an updated all-time scoring list:
1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387
2 Karl Malone 36,928
3 Kobe Bryant 33,643
4 Michael Jordan 32,292
5 Wilt Chamberlain 31,419
6 Dirk Nowitzki 30,837
7 LeBron James 30,021
According to the Bill James Projection System, which was shared in a Sports Illustrated piece by Ben Golliver, here are the chances that LeBron moves up higher on the all-time scoring list:
Chances to reach Wilt Chamberlain at 31,419 points: 97%
Chances to reach Michael Jordan at 32,292 points: 97%
Chances to reach Kobe Bryant at 33,643 points: 97%
Chances to reach Karl Malone at 36,928 points: 88%
Chances to reach Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 38,387 points: 64%
This is working off of the projection that LeBron will average 25.5 PPG over the next five seasons and play at least 75 games per season.
Maintaining that sort of production until age 38 seems a little lofty, even for LeBron.
If LeBron ends up playing until the age of 40, I think there is little chance he wouldn’t become the league all-time leading scorer.
