In the infancy of the latest chapter of his career, LeBron James added another piece to his legacy by passing Dirk Nowitzki for sixth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
James hit from mid-range with 7:51 left in the third quarter of the Lakers’ game against San Antonio on Saturday, reaching 31,188 career points — one more than Nowitzki, whom he also passed as the league’s leading scorer among active players.
One of the most prolific offensive weapons in NBA history, James reached his spot on the list despite ranking just 54th in career games played. His 27.16 points per game are the fourth-most ever, trailing only Michael Jordan (30.12), Wilt Chamberlain (30.07) and Elgin Baylor (27.36).
LeBron has ranked among the NBA’s top 10 in total points for all 15 seasons of his career. He has spent 11 seasons among the top three, including last year when he scored the most points in the league.
James scored 35 points against the Spurs on Saturday, brining his career total to 31,202.
He now only trails Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) in the history books. He is on pace to pass Jordan and Chamberlain this season.
Of James’ career total, 74.1 percent of his points were scored during his 11 years with Cleveland, while 25.4 percent came during his four seasons in Miami. In just six games with the Lakers, he has scored 164 points — constituting 0.5 percent of his entire work.
Since James’ Heat team lost to Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals, James has won 10 of their last 11 head-to-head meetings. The Lakers host the Mavs on Halloween this Wednesday, but Nowtizki’s status is in question due to a sore left ankle.
In the same game against San Antonio, LeBron passed Shaquille O’Neal (11,330) for the sixth-most made field goals in a career (11,339).
“Dirk has always been one of my favorite players, and I think Shaq is the most dominant player to ever play this game,” James said. “For me to be in the same conversation with those guys, in anything we’re talking about as far as basketball, it’s a tribute as far as just being humble and knowing where I come from.
“Being from Akron, Ohio — a small town where most African-American kids don’t make it out of — any time I’m able to do something like that, I give it all back to my hometown and the kids just like me.”