LeBron is youngest NBA player to score 25,000
PHILADELPHIA — He might be embarking on his 13th season and playing through a bad back that caused him to miss most of training camp, but LeBron James is still setting basketball records that celebrate his youth.
James became the youngest player in NBA history to score 25,000 points, reaching the mark with an alley-oop dunk that he guided in the hoop with 8:06 remaining in the fourth quarter of a 107-100 win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday. The bucket gave James 22 points for the game and 25,001 points for his career. During an ensuing timeout, James was acknowledged for the accomplishment by the Sixers’ public address announcer and received a standing ovation from the road crowd.
James, who is 30 years, 307 days old, passed another prep-to-pro sensation, Kobe Bryant, in doing so. Bryant reached the plateau at 31 years, 151 days old.
“It just means that I’ve played with a lot of great teammates, a lot of great coaches that have allowed me to me to be in position to be successful on the floor,” James said at shootaround Monday when informed he was nearing the point total. “It’s definitely a milestone any time you’re able to have an accomplishment like that. I’ve been around some great groups and I’m able to reap a lot of the benefits.”
James said he remembered reaching the 20,000-point notch playing in Golden State in January 2013 and saved the game ball from the occasion.
“I’ll probably keep this one too if we win,” James told ESPN.com. “If we lose, it’s going to put a damper on my trophy case.”
Coincidentally, James spoiled Bryant’s 25,000-point night for the Los Angeles Lakers superstar, scoring 37 points to Bryant’s 31 in a 93-87 win for the Cleveland Cavaliers over L.A. on Jan. 21, 2010. “That’s crazy,” James said when informed of the Bryant connection. “That was five years ago? Wow.”
James is the 20th player to reach the point total and just the seventh to do so before the end of his 13th season, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Oscar Robertson and Dominique Wilkins. James needed 915 games to reach the accomplishment, trailing only Chamberlain (691), Jordan (782) and Abdul-Jabbar (889), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“Nineteen guys?” James said of the elite company he was joining. “There’s been over 1900 guys that have been in this league, so I guess it’s a cool thing.”
Meanwhile, he continues to catapult up the all-time scoring list as well. The next name ahead of him is Jerry West with 25,192 points.
“For me, winning basketball games and then reaching milestones individually will be a pretty cool thing but obviously it will be a team aspect of it that comes first,” James said. “But any time along that line that you’re able to reach a milestone, I think it’s very humbling and it’s a cool thing. I know where I come from and I know where my family comes from and for me to have milestones along the way — obviously I have more work to do — but it’s cool to see when you’re able to kind of just stop and look at it. Because I don’t get much time to really stop and look at some of the things that I’ve done.”
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