Is LeBron James worthy of being considered the contemporary GOAT of the NBA?

LeBron James scoring chart: When will the Lakers star score 40,000 points in his career?

James is still making history, even though he may not have any more records to break.

A year after setting the all-time scoring record for the NBA, James is almost done with another impressive feat. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points is now well behind James. The Lakers star is now almost at 40,000 points in his illustrious career.

James was 1,348 points short of the mark going into the 2023–24 season. He’s now only 150 points away from the record, and the Lakers want to keep running for the playoffs after the All-Star break.

L.A. James will score 40,000 points when? Think about where he is now and how he can keep changing the course of history in his 21st season.

Tracker for LeBron James’s scores

L.A. James will score 40,000 points when?

James has a little over 40,000 points, but not quite there yet.

James will hit the mark in six games if he keeps scoring at the rate of 24.8 points per game. He will score 40,000 points on March 2 when the Lakers play the Nuggets. Just keep going at this rate.

It’s important to note that the Lakers have two back-to-back games before their game on March 2. This means that James might not be able to play in all of them.

Oscar Schmidt and LeBron James for the most points scored in a professional basketball game

LeBron James needs 258 more points to become the player with the most overall points in basketball history. Olaf Schmidt, who is in the Hall of Fαme, currently holds the record with 49,737 points earned over 28 years.

James will pass Schmidt in 11 games if he keeps scoring at the rate of 24.8 points per game. James will get to 49,738 points on March 13 in Sacramento if he keeps going at the rate he is.

The points Schmidt has scored for his professional team, the Brazilian National Team, and in All-Star Games are all on his record. Schmidt was picked up by the NBA in the 1984 Draft, but he never played in a game.

When James scored eight points in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game, he had scored 49,480 points all together. He scored those points in the NBA regular season, the NBA Playoffs, the Play-In Tournament, the In-Season Tournament Championship, the All-Star Games, and tournaments held in other countries.

The Lakers’ basketball schedule for 2023–24

After the All-Star break, the Lakers still have 26 regular-season games to play. James missed seven of the Lakers’ first 56 games this season because of an ankle injury that won’t go away.

The Lakers will play these games over the next month, during which time James could score 40,000 points and beαt Schmidt’s record:

Scores LeBron James has made over his career

James has played in the NBA for 21 years and has always scored at least 20 points per game. Thanks to his longevity and good health, he set an all-time score record that will be hard to beαt, let alone match.

James is 39 years old and in his 21st season, but he still scores 24.8 points per game on average. James’s current shooting average is the lowest it has been since his rookie year, but if he plays all 69 games, it would be the most points he has scored in a single season since 2017–18.

Since moving to Los Angeles, where he played an average of 55.6 games per season for his first five years, James has not scored 1,700 points in a single season.