On the morning of March 3, LeBron James officially reached the milestone of 40,000 points in his NBA career. This is a 21-year journey, a testament to the class of one of the greatest basketball players in history.

More importantly, it hasn’t stopped yet because the more James plays, the more points he scores and the greater his advantage over his pursuers becomes.

But before discussing the future, let’s look back at LeBron James’ 40,000-point journey with 40 statistics and a special set of indicators that the “39-year-old young talent” has achieved.

These points are looked at by the CBS website through many aspects, from unmatched durability to special ways for LeBron to “pile up points” throughout his 21 years of playing in the NBA.

IMPRESSIVE INDICATORS

14. LeBron has scored more points in his career than legends Larry Bird and Magic Johnson have combined, more than 40,000 points compared to 39,498 points.

15. James can not score any more points in the next 125 games and still average 25.0 points/game for his career, greater than many NBA legends including LeBron’s late brother Kobe Bryant.

16. Five years have passed since LeBron James surpassed Michael Jordan, who is often mentioned along with LeBron in the race “GOAT – Greatest basketball player in history” (March 6, 2019)

17. If you eliminate all 3-pointers and free throws in your career, LeBron James still has a higher total number of points scored than Kevin Durant at this time.

18. If you include the Playoffs plus the Regular Season, the total number of points that LeBron James has is more than 48,000 points, not stopping at 40,000.

19. It took LeBron only 1 season (2012-13 MVP season) to score 18,879 points, greater than the number of points legendary Tracy McGrady had in his entire 15-year career (18,381 points).

20. LeBron James is rarely ejected for committing 6 personal fouls. But if counted from the most recent time (April 2017) until now, he has scored 11,000 points. 

21. James alone has 14 50-point games in his career, equal to the total number of 50-point games the entire Boston Celtics team has ever had in history.

22. Even more unbelievable, LeBron has more games with 50 points (14) than he has games with less than 10 points (8 games).

23. If we take the 82 games with the fewest points in James’ career to create a Regular Season, he still has an average of 12.6 points/game and is on par with the career PPG index of the legendary Hall of Famer. Fame Jason Kidd.

24. Somehow, LeBron James has never scored 49 points in a Regular Season game. The other numbers were all experienced by LeBron in 1,475 appearances.

25. LeBron won the only Scoring Champ title in the 2007-08 season, leading the entire NBA with an average of 30.0 points/game. At that time, James was 24 years old and Kevin Durant was just a rookie.

26. LeBron can miss 304 times in a row and still have a 50.0% FG shooting rate.

27. Despite his excellent scoring, LeBron James does not hold the record for scoring baskets with any rival team in the NBA. 

28. The first players to score 30,000 points, 35,000 points and 40,000 points are all from the Los Angeles Lakers, including Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James respectively.

29. Among the 30 teams in the NBA, the Chicago Bulls are the opponents with the most points scored by LeBron James in his career.

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENTS 

30. LeBron James holds the record for the most scoring game in Miami Heat history (61 points scored on March 4, 2014 vs Charlotte).

31. He has the most 30-point games with 50% FG shooting in NBA history with 429 games.

32. LeBron had a streak of 13 consecutive games scoring 25 points and reaching 50% FGs last season, equaling the longest streak in NBA history (with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shaquille O’Neal).

33. In NBA history, LeBron James is the youngest player to reach even-scoring milestones (1000, 2000, 3000, 4000… 38000, 39000).

34. LeBron James averages 25.0 points/game on baskets from 29 out of 30 teams in the NBA. The Detroit Pistons are the only team below that number with 24.1 PPG.

35. He is the only player in NBA history to average 26.0 points/game in 3 different clubs including Miami Heat (26.9 PPG – 294 games), Los Angeles Lakers (27.2 PPG – 331 games *) and Cleveland Cavaliers (27.0 PPG – 849 games).

*331 matches by the time of reaching 40,000 points

SCORE IN ANY WAY, AT ANY DISTANCE 

36. LeBron James is the only player in NBA history to rank in the top 10 in total 3-pointers, 2-point shots and free throws.

37. LeBron ranks 4th in the NBA in both dunks and shots from a distance of over 30 feet (9.1 meters). If you include the entire tournament, no one is in the top 30 in both of these indicators besides James. 

38. Over more than 20 years of playing, LeBron ranked first in the entire NBA in three different scoring indicators including clutch points, quick rebounds and points scored in the 3-second zone.

39. Talking more about clutch points (calculated in the last 5 minutes of matches with a difference of less than 5 points), LeBron ranked first in the NBA three times in the 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons. In the history of the tournament, no player has led the NBA in clutch points more than twice since this index was recorded in 1996.

40. Currently with the Los Angeles Lakers, a quarter of LeBron James’ points come from 3-pointers. Before that, LeBron’s scoring rate from beyond the 3PT arc had never been more than 20% when playing for the Heat and Cavaliers.