Jan 23, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts in the second half against the Boston Celtics at the Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James went into Tuesday night's game against the New Orleans needing one point to reach 50,000 for his career when combining the regular and postseason, and he got it in the first quarter on a 3-pointer.
James, of course, already broke the NBA's scoring record, so he is just running up his total at this point. He has the most regular season points, postseason posts, and combined points in NBA history.
Considering LeBron has never been known as a pure scorer, it's pretty impressive what he's been able to accomplish in his career when it comes to putting the ball in the basket.
He has added stuff to his game in the latter years of his career, most notably improving his jump shot, so he is still one of the best scorers in the league in his 22nd season.
James has reached a number of accomplishments and milestones throughout his time with the Lakers, most recently being named Western Conference Player of the Month, and that will continue as long as he decides to keep playing. While the end is undoubtedly on the horizon at some point, James could conceivably play at least two more seasons, which means reaching 60,000 career points is not out of the question.
What LeBron James is doing for the Lakers at the age of 40 is nothing short of amazing. In recent weeks, he's been getting it done on both ends of the floor and Lakers head coach JJ Redick wanted to give him a shoutout for his defense, in particular.
"Again, he defies what's normal... And again, this is not an exaggeration," Redick said after the Lakers' victory over the Dallas Mavericks in which they held their fourth straight opponent to 102 points or less. "If you watch our basketball team every night, and you've watched our team now for the last six weeks or so, LeBron is playing at an All-NBA defense level.
"He is, and now, people may have perceptions of what he is as a defender; I watch it every night. He doesn't get scored on in isolation if teams do try to target him. He blows plays up. He's always in the right position, shifting, recovering. I think there was this perception of him at this age, like conserving energy. No, there's no conservation of energy on that end of the floor. He's played elite defense now for a while."