While Saturday night saw the Los Angeles Lakers lose in familiar fashion to the Denver Nuggets, it also saw LeBron James add yet another milestone to his storied career by crossing the 40,000-point threshold.
James is the only player in NBA history to do so, and he did so again in front of Anthony Davis, his teammate for the last five seasons who has now seen just about every piece of NBA history up close.
Davis has watched close by as James climbed his way up the scoring leaderboard, passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last season and now cross the 40,000 threshold this year. The two players have a notoriously close relationship and a great bond, and part of that is the respect they have for one another as players.
So naturally, Davis had plenty of great things to say about James crossing that scoring milestone, what it means for James’ career and how impressive it is given where Davis is at on that scoring list.
“We knew he was gonna get it,” Davis said, “I thought that he missed the free throw on purpose so he could get exactly forty thousand. But then he shot a three, but it looked like he didn’t want to shoot it, because he kind of hesitated. But to be able to score 40,000, I just looked up and thought, I was just like, ‘That’s a lot of buckets’.
“I laughed with Vando and AR, I’m like, ‘I’m trying to get to 20,000.’ He’s at 40, so double that. Man, you look at a lot of great players who have played this game and no one is even close to 40. Obviously, it’s a great moment. Obviously, it would be better if we were able to get the win, which sucks kind of, I don’t want to say ruined the moment, but put a little cloud over it. But it’s definitely a great accomplishment for a guy like that, who guys say isn’t a scorer. Able to get 40,000, first to ever do it in history. And It looks like no one is gonna be able to even get close to it. As a friend, as a brother, a teammate — I’m definitely happy for him. And just excited to be able to witness that live.”
Davis also went in depth on if he believes that anyone else in the league is capable of passing 40,000 before going back to James’ impressive feat.
“That can get to 40,000? It’s gotta be a young guy, you would think. Possibly Steph, the way he shoots the ball, but it’s not. And it’s just tough because [LeBron’s] not finished playing, so it’s only going to increase. That gap is only going to get bigger and bigger. I was just telling him in the locker room, like, one, he might have to stop breaking records cause we always lose any time he break a record. And he said the same thing.
“But then, two — I guess this one was more like a milestone than a record — but any time he plays, it’s gonna be a new milestone every time. I don’t think nobody — I mean, and he went to eight straight Finals, which tells you he played longer in the postseason. He’s gonna keep scoring. And then for him, being the number one option on his teams, what he’s able to do to score. As of right now, I don’t see anybody breaking his record.”
Davis is a superstar in his own right that has plenty of accomplishments under his belt. But James continues to place himself in solo territory with the records he breaks on a near nightly basis. James is in rarified air as he solidifies himself as perhaps the greatest player to ever play the game.
Nuggets’ Michael Malone marvels at LeBron James
LeBron James has been nothing short of amazing during the 2023-24 season, but even he has to admit he outdid himself hitting 40,000 points. Nuggets head coach Michael Malone may have been on the other end of history, but he couldn’t help but gush about what James has done throughout his career.
“I don’t get caught up in the number per say, but you just have to marvel at the continued greatness,” Malone said. “There’s so many stories of guys coming out of high school who had all this hype. All the hype, ‘He’s the next so and so,’ and they never pan out. How he has handled the fame at such an early age, the spotlight, just to do what he’s doing at this stage of his career and it doesn’t appear that he’s slowing down at all, which is even scarier.”
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