Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James has made a routine out of historical achievements. Nearly every night, James finds himself breaking a new record or joining a significant statistical group.
This was the case on Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets, when James became the third player overall and the youngest player ever to reach 35,000 career points.
While it’s disappointing that it came in a loss, James can still look back on this milestone with pride, as it brings him one step closer to passing Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
“It’s the same answer for me,” James began when asked for his thoughts on the latest achievement. “First of all I’m very humbled and very grateful to be a part of such a great league.
“It’s a privilege to do what I love to do, and that’s to play the game of basketball and continue to inspire the youth. For me to be linked with some of the greats that have ever played this game is always an honor.
“I’ve always just wanted to go out there and play the game the right way, inspire my teammates, inspire people that watch me and just try to be as good as I can be every single night and not really put a ceiling on my ability or what I can do as far as this game. I’ve had some pretty good moments, and I’m very thankful for that.”
As he always is after achieving something of this stature, James was humbled just to be named along with some of the other all-time greats. He’s had plenty of practice speaking after becoming a record holder simply because it happens as often as it does.
James now is just 3,370 points behind Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading screr. At his average of 25.9 points, James would need 131 more games to ascend to No. 1. If he can achieve this, it would even further bolster his résumé for being the greatest of all-time.
James humbled by passing Wilt Chamberlain for third on all-time field goals list
Also in the month of February, James moved into third on the all-time field goals made list, surpassing the great Wilt Chamberlain. He gave a similar speech about that feat.
“That does something for me, because I’m a guy who grew up reading about the game, studying the game, studying players past and present, and I wanted to see who was dominant in their era and laid the groundwork for young kids like myself who started to play the game at 9 years old.”
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