LOS ANGELES — As the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, every point Lakers star LeBron James scores sets a new record.
The future Hall of Famer accomplishes a new “first” with each basket and free throw. And he’s on the cusp of another one.
James, who has the longest double-digit scoring streak in NBA history, will almost certainly become the first player in league history to score at least 40,000 regular-season points during the Lakers’ nationally televised matchup against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The 39-year-old James is nine points away from the milestone after scoring 34 in Wednesday’s win over the Clippers and 31 in Thursday’s overtime victory over the Washington Wizards.
“For me to be in this position at this point and time in my career, I think it’s pretty cool,” James said after Thursday’s win. “Does it sit at the top of the things I’ve done in my career? No. But does it mean something? Of course, absolutely. Why wouldn’t it?
“To be able to accomplish things in this league, with the greatest players to ever play in this league, the NBA, has been a dream of mine and to hit feats and have milestones throughout my career, they all mean something to me. I would be lying to you if I said it doesn’t mean anything. Because it absolutely does.”
James became the league’s all-time leading scorer on Feb. 7, 2023, when he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 career points).
The four-time champion and four-time league MVP said he hasn’t thought about how many points he could end his career with since breaking the record last season.
“I never thought about getting the scoring record,” James said. “It just happened organically. I played the game the right way and went out and played the game and let the game come to me and the scoring record happened organically for me. It was never a goal of mine when I came into the league, like I wanted to be the all-time leading scorer. But I’m still…
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