NBA superstar LeBron James becomes youngest player to reach 30,000 career points

  • 24/01/2018
The record was previously held by Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
The record was previously held by Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. Photo credit: Getty

LeBron James has become the seventh - and youngest - player to score 30,000 NBA career points.

The Cleveland Cavaliers star hit an 18-foot jump shot with 1.1 seconds left in the first quarter against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday to give him 30,001 points.

He joins a club that includes just one other active player, Dirk Nowitzki (30,837 points).

Also ahead of James on the scoring list are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32,292) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419).

James, at 33 years and 24 days old, topped the mark held by Bryant, who scored his 30,000th point when he was 34 years and 104 days old.

He became the fourth-fastest to the milestone in terms of number of games played (1,107), trailing Chamberlain (941), Jordan (960) and Abdul-Jabbar (1,101).

Before the game began on Tuesday, James posted a photo of his younger self on Instagram and wrote a letter from that boy to the present day.

"Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight that you'll reach!" he wrote.

"The House you're about to be apart of has only 6 seats in it(as of now) but 1 more will be added and you should be very proud and honored to be invited inside ... congrats again, Young King."

NBA commissioner Adam Silver used the league's official Twitter account to post: "Congratulations to LeBron on reaching 30,000 points -- yet another milestone in an extraordinary career that continues to inspire. -- Adam"

Nowitzki tweeted, "Congrats KingJames. Welcome to the club!!!"

Bryant added on his Twitter account: "From #Akron to #30k KingJames well done my brotha"

Reuters