Can LeBron James become the first-ever NBA player to score 40,000 points or beyond?
LA Lakers star forward LeBron James is now the NBA’s- all-time leading scorer with 38,390 career points and counting. James passed Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 career points) on Tuesday night against OKC to set the record.
Abdul-Jabbar previously held the record since 1984. Similarly, with James showing no signs of slowing down, it looks like he should now be able to hold the record for the foreseeable future. In the process, James will also have a chance to become the first NBA player to reach the 40,000 career points milestone.
James is averaging 30.2 points per game this season in his 20th season. He is only 1,610 points away from 40k career points. So at his current scoring average, it should take James around 54 more games to reach 40k points.
James has played in 44 of the Lakers' 55 games so far, with the team having 27 games remaining this season. Over his previous four seasons in LA, James has played an average of around 56 games per season. So James is currently on pace to reach 40k points around the middle of next season.
If his scoring average drops to around 25.0PPG, he will obviously need more time to reach 40k points. This would push the marker back to around 65 more games needed before he can do so. Likewise, at a 20.0PPG average, James would need around 81 more games to reach 40k points.
This means there could be a possibility that James will do so in the 2024-2025 season if he misses some time next season.
Can LeBron James also reach 45,000 career points?
With LeBron James looking very likely to become the first player to reach 40,000 career points, that begs another question. That is, can James become the first player to reach the 45,000 career points milestone?
James is currently 6,610 points away from 45k points. At his current rate of 30.0PPG, this would take him around 221 more games to do so. This is just under three full seasons.
At a scoring rate of 25.0PPG, James would need around 265 more games to do so. Finally, at a rate of 20.0PPG, James would need around 331 more games to reach 45k points. This is around four more seasons.
It remains to be seen when LeBron James will start to decline offensively and how steep his drop-off will be. But as of now, it looks like he could play for at least another few seasons. This should give him a decent chance of extending his all-time scoring record past 45k points.
For LeBron James' updated career point total, click here.