Career point total: 2 Everything was ready. The players were on the court, the referees had the ball, and the fans were in their seats. But the start of James’ first game was halted because the earlier nationally televised game on ESPN had run long. In those moments of limbo, James sat on the scorer’s table and chewed his nails, every eye in Arco Arena on him.
The Cavs were in Sacramento for two days before the game, and James had been antsy. That afternoon he had lunch with Moses Malone, who told him stories about his rookie season to help pass the time. “A year ago I was watching this at the start of the season. Now I’m finally here. It’s a dream,” James said that night. “This will never get old. When it does, that’s when I’ll stop playing.”
The nerves never showed. James was under control from the start, moving smoothly. He grabbed a rebound 90 seconds in and ran the offense to set up Ricky Davis for a layup. Then three minutes in, he came off a screen set by Carlos Boozer and had a sliver of an opening along the baseline. Boozer was open rolling away from the screen, but James wanted the shot. He leaned back to create room and took it from a tough angle. The ball ripped through the net. The Cavs’ bench roared as James ran past. The rookie would make his first three shots and finish the quarter, his first, with 12 points, two rebounds, two assists and three steals.
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Career point total: 1,441 “His reputation certainly preceded him,” Kerry Kittles told ESPN of a young LeBron James, who was playing just the 69th game of his career. The Nets had faced James twice earlier in his rookie season, winning those two games by a combined 35 points. So when it came time for the third meeting, they thought they were prepared.
After getting off to a slow start with only two points in the first quarter, James caught fire, dropping 11 in the second, 12 in the third and 16 in the fourth — the final two coming on a breakaway dunk with 1.9 seconds left to make him the youngest player in NBA history to score at least 40 points in a game.
“He is a force that moves in, around and through you with such lightning speed and physical dominance that there is little you can do to stop him,” Kittles said. “I remember a convo with team president Rod Thorn about the final play. When asked if I could have fouled him to prevent the inevitable, I answered with full confidence, ‘Not a chance. Not a chance.'”
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Career point total: 2,726 Just a few months after this game, Damon Jones would end up on the Cavaliers, where he eventually made the winning basket to clinch LeBron James’ first playoff series win. Later, after retiring, he served as an assistant coach on James’ 2016 title-winning team in Cleveland. But when the names LeBron James and Damon Jones are mentioned, this will always be the first play that comes to mind.
“I’m sitting there in the defensive stance by our bench and he tries to throw a lob pass over the top — a skip pass over the top — and I intercept it and I give it up to Jeff McInnis in transition and all I’m hoping is that he throws it back to me,” James told ESPN of the play. “And once he throws it back to me, I’m telling myself, ‘I hope this guy don’t jump. I hope he don’t.’ Because I’m a nice guy. But I’m going to punish him if he jumps. And he jumped and that’s probably one of the best plays I had made up until that point of my career.”
Even though the game was played in Miami, the dunk ignited the crowd, which included a young Beyoncé.
“Destiny’s Child was sitting courtside at the scorer’s table when that happened,” James said. “I don’t know if they had an album coming out or whatever, but they was sitting courtside at the scorer’s table and I looked over and saw their reaction. And for a 19-year-old kid at that point and time and to look at Destiny’s Child and see their reaction at that dunk, I was like, ‘Oh, s—!’ I took [my facemask] off and smiled. Smiled at the crowd. It was in their direction too, that’s for sure.”
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02.20.2005 Plays in first NBA All-Star Game
Career point total: 9,614 “That was a great game. A big-time game, actually,” James said. “That’s when B-Roy was one of the best 2-guards in the league at the time.”
Roy, who made the first of three straight All-Star teams later that season, missed a 3-pointer that would’ve put the Blazers up four with five seconds left, giving James one last chance to give the Cavs the win.
“I looped up to the top, we just ran one of our loop plays — our ‘loop ice’ is what we called it at the time,” he said. “I got it on the right wing, and I was able to drive and get all the way to the left side. I was kind of shocked that they allowed me to get all the way to the left side of the rim to make the game-winner. But that was a big moment for me, obviously, but a big win for our team too.”
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02.27.2008 10,000 Becomes youngest player to score 10,000 career points
Long 2-point jumper from left wing over Ronny Turiaf 0:00 left in fourth quarter
Career point total: 11,833 James had made a few game-winners in the final seconds by this point, but this was his first true buzzer-beater. On the play, Warriors coach Don Nelson had put his best defender, Stephen Jackson, on Cavs center Anderson Varejao, and Ronny Turiaf on James. Nelson expected Varejao to set a screen for James, as was typical in those situations, and the defenders could switch. When James saw the alignment, he altered the play and went a different direction, resulting in an isolation shot over Turiaf for the win. ESPN
Career point total: 12,203 For the first six seasons of his career, LeBron James was a below-average 3-point shooter (32.8 percent on 4.1 attempts per game). But every once in a while, he’d get hot from beyond the arc — and this was a prime example. After scoring 25 points in the first half, James came out on fire in the third, making four consecutive 3-point shots — each one deeper than the last — the last in the face of then-Bucks guard Ramon Sessions.
“I was thinking he was going to shoot and playing for that and he still hit it,” Sessions told ESPN. “I don’t know how much he finished with that game, but you could definitely tell he had it going from deep. For him to settle in transition like that is not like LeBron. I thought I was in the right spot. He shot that deep. And 3s wasn’t a big deal back then like that either, so for somebody to come down and shoot four in a row. Now you look at it like, ‘Oh that’s just the NBA.’ But back then, nah, that wasn’t the NBA. It’s one of those things where he was in the zone and everybody was watching.”
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Career point total: 15,760 Truth be told, this would be one of many routine Wade-to-James dunks from their four-plus years as teammates if not for Wade’s reaction shortly after dropping the pass, which led to the photo that defined what Joakim Noah called the “Hollywood as Hell” Heat.
“That’s an iconic photo in sports. Forever,” James said. “I mean, listen, we’re two of the most explosive guys out in the open court ever seen in the NBA. And that was just one of those times and one of those plays where I was running the floor and him having court vision, when he dropped it off to me he already knew what was going to happen before it happened. It was just like, ‘We here. And we’re here to do something special.'”
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Career point total: 17,896 In the final year of Brian Scalabrine’s playing career, James, then with the Heat, caught a first-quarter lob while leaping over 5-foot-11 Bulls guard John Lucas and finished the dunk.
“He jumped over John Lucas’ head. I’m not kidding,” Scalabrine said while searching YouTube on his phone for visual evidence. “John Lucas was right there, and LeBron jumped over him and just dunked it. It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Was Scalabrine able to contain himself on the Chicago bench?
“No, I went crazy,” Scalabrine said. “Like, his feet went over his head. Not like Vince Carter when he spread eagles. LeBron’s feet were higher than John Lucas’ head. It was incredible.”
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01.17.2013 20,000 Becomes youngest player to score 20,000 career points
Career point total: 20,780 The pair had a rivalry dating to 2003, when Terry hit James with a flagrant foul when Terry played for the Hawks. It reached a new level in 2011 during the NBA Finals, when Terry trash-talked James throughout the series and confidently predicted James would wear out when the Mavericks were down 2-1 to James’ Heat. Terry, who was great in the series as James was a primary defender, proved to be right.
But on this play, Terry had no chance. It was a three-on-one break after a turnover, and Terry never saw James coming as he slammed home a perfect lob pass from Norris Cole. James was given a technical foul for lording over Terry, who had fallen to the floor. But James’ reaction got even better. The next day, James verbally dunked on Terry again when he said: “I reviewed [the dunk], and it was one of my best. The fact that it happened to J.T. made it that much sweeter because we all know J.T., and he talks too much sometimes. I’m glad it happened to him.”
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Career point total: 21,775 “First of all, it’s always great playing at Staples Center,” James said. “And then you add on the fact that it’s Christmas, that was just a great moment.”
James has faced the Lakers on Christmas Day three times in his career, all at Staples Center, and all in a winning effort, so it’s no surprise he remembers those games fondly. In this particular meeting, Kobe Bryant was out because of an injury, putting Nick Young in the Lakers’ starting lineup — and directly in the path of James on this highlight-reel effort.
“From the time me and D-Wade got together, I just told him: ‘Just throw it anywhere, I’ll go get it. Anywhere you throw it, I’ll go get it.’ And that’s what it was,” James said. “He just started throwing things places that it was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’m going to catch this one,’ and then I ended up going to get it and that was another instance where he just flicked it over his head, and I like Swaggy P, too. I hated that he had to be at the end of that.”
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03.03.2014 Scores career-high 61 points vs. Bobcats
07.11.2014 Announces return to Cleveland in first-person letter in Sports Illustrated
Career point total: 25,349 With Kyrie Irving out while recovering from knee surgery, there was no question whose hands the ball would be in for the final possession of this surprisingly competitive game against a Nets team that would go on to win only 21 games that season.
“We fought them tooth and nail and it was a game we should have won,” Jarrett Jack told ESPN. “It was a tie ballgame and [James] went to this rocking, Magic Johnson-like hook shot and won the game for them. It was cool for them, it was a great shot for him.”
Jack, who was on the far side of the lane to cut off the pass to the corner as James floated up the game-winner, said the Nets actually defended the four-time MVP well on the play, but he just came up with a better shot.
“He’s a load regardless, but when he gets into the paint, he’s like really, really difficult to deal with,” Jack said. “I thought we forced him into a good shot but obviously (laughs), he made it so it was something that he probably had practiced before, a shot that he was comfortable with and he was able to knock it down.”
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Career point total: 28,052 Even James acknowledges that this shot — which was so instantly iconic that the NBA immediately started using it in an ad campaign — wouldn’t have happened if not for his own compounded mistakes seconds earlier.
“The banked 3 wouldn’t have happened if I would have made the layup that I traveled on,” he said. “I got all the way to the lane, I made the right move against John Wall and my feet just got caught up. And because I traveled is why I missed it, because it threw me out of my rhythm.”
Thankfully for NBA fans, James did miss that layup, because it gave him a chance to put up a shot that looked a lot like pure luck, but was in fact the work of extensive practice.
“We had worked on that play weekly. All the time,” James said. “Kevin always being the trigger man, because of his ability to throw that outlet pass full court and I’m always working on different angles and different shots in practices. The most difficult shots you can take. And that was the best way for me to get that ball up there was for me to turn and go glass. So, I was just hoping I didn’t step on the sideline because I was right there and I was hoping I didn’t step on the sideline and I was hoping I didn’t tiptoe the 3-point line and his pass led me right where I needed to go.”
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Career point total: 29,048 James had scored 56 points to set the Cavs’ record for a single game in only his third season in the league. He topped that effort by a single point on this night, scoring his final field goal with less than a minute left, then adding the ensuing free throw to match Kyrie Irving’s team record of 57 points. The final basket came on a post-up in the lane, the kind of play James didn’t make often early in his career.
“Well, I mean, it’s just the evolution of my game,” he said. “You go from seeing me getting a dunk over Damon Jones in transition to me going all the way to my 15th season and making a turnaround fadeaway in the post, that’s just the whole transformation of my game. How I improved over the course of my career. So, there’s never been a ceiling too high or I’ve never put a ceiling on what I can accomplish.”
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01.23.2018 30,000 Becomes seventh player in NBA history to score 30,000 points
Career point total: 31,040 James made his Lakers debut on the road, like he had 15 years earlier when making his NBA debut for the Cavaliers. And for his first points as a Laker, he turned back the clock to 2003 with a throwdown slam that was eerily reminiscent to one from his very first game. He followed it up with a nearly identical slam less than 20 seconds later.
“I was right there, first row,” said Lonzo Ball, who came off the bench in what was his NBA debut. “[Two] of the best two plays I’ve ever seen.”
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03.06.2019 Passes Michael Jordan for fourth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list
Career point total: 33,644 James had been a Laker for only a year and a half when he made history by surpassing arguably the greatest Laker ever for third place on the career scoring list, doing so in Kobe Bryant’s birthplace of Philadelphia.
James inscribed his sneakers with “Mamba 4 Life” and “8/24 KB” in gold marker before the game, showing respect for the former Lakers great.
“It doesn’t make sense. Just to make a long story short, now I’m here in a Lakers uniform, in Philadelphia, where he’s from,” James said after the game. “The first time I ever met him, gave me his shoes on All-Star Weekend [in 2002]. It’s surreal.”
What made the moment more surreal is what happened a day later. Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash in California. The last tweet he’d ever sent came hours earlier when he’d congratulated James on his accomplishment: “Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames. Much respect my brother 💪🏾 #33644”
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Career point total: 33,746 Less than two weeks after Bryant’s death, James paid an unintended tribute to the late Lakers legend with a breakaway dunk in the third quarter of a game against the Houston Rockets.
The slam by James, a double-clutch reverse off an outlet pass from Avery Bradley, appeared to be a carbon copy of a dunk Bryant threw down on Nov. 18, 2001, against the Sacramento Kings — from the approach to the launching spot to the side of the court at Staples Center being the same.
“Ever see the movie ‘The 6th Man’?” James asked two nights later. “Kobe came down, put himself in my body and gave me that dunk on that break.”
James said that although he saw Bryant complete that dunk countless times during his 20-year career, he was not planning to mimic it going into the Houston game.
“I didn’t really predetermine that either until I jumped,” James said. “I just jumped and kind of figured it out, and then … it’s crazy how it’s the same exact dunk, the same exact hoop that Kobe did [it on] — what, 19 years ago or something like that? That was nice.”
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02.18.2021 35,000 Becomes third player in NBA history to score at least 35,000 points
Career point total: 36,947 It was only fitting that James passed Karl Malone as the NBA’s second all-time leading scorer doing what The Mailman did thousands of times — cutting to the basket, receiving a pass and scoring on an uncontested driving layup.
“Just to be part of this league the many years I’ve been a part of it and being linked to some of the greatest who’ve ever played this game and guys I’ve ever watched or studied or read about or aspired to be like … I’m just always lost for words for it,” James said. “It’s an honor for myself, for my hometown, for my family and friends to be able to live these moments throughout this journey. And that’s exactly who I do it for.”
While James said that even after passing Malone he wasn’t thinking about catching Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA’s top spot, his longtime friend and then-Lakers teammate Carmelo Anthony certainly was.
“When I was younger, I used to think, ‘Ain’t nobody catching Karl Malone. Nobody catching Kareem.’ … Now to have the chance to be the No. 1 all-time scorer in the history of the NBA, somebody who been doing it for 19 seasons at an all-time high, and somebody who just embraced the moment. He’s been doing that his whole career.”
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Career point total: 38,388 James, who averaged 28.9 points during the 2022-23 season, entered the night needing 36 to surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. With a star-studded crowd, including Abdul-Jabbar himself, on hand in Los Angeles, James made it a mission to get those points that night.
And with a 14-foot jumper late in the third quarter, James had officially scored more points in the regular season than any other player in NBA history.
“The scoring record was never, ever even thought of in my head because I’ve always been a pass-first guy,” James told ESPN earlier that year, with the record fast approaching.
The game was stopped for about 10 minutes while James hugged his family, including his wife, mother and three children, and participated in a brief ceremony with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Abdul-Jabbar, who watched the game from a baseline seat near the Lakers bench.
“A lot of people wanted me to go to the skyhook to break the record or one of the signature dunks,” James said with a grin. “But the fadeaway is a signature play as well.”
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40,000
03.xx.2024 at TK Opponent
With a TKTKTK (fill in details of basket/free throw), James becomes the first player in NBA history to eclipse 40,000 regular-season points. When you add in his 8,023 points in the playoffs (also the most ever), he’s approaching a combined 50,000 points for his record-setting NBA career.
Illustration by Flore Maquin
IAN BEGLEY, CHRIS FORSBERG, BAXTER HOLMES, BOBBY MARKS, DAVE McMENAMIN, ADAM REISINGER, BRIAN WINDHORST AND MICHAEL C. WRIGHT contributed to this report
Source: www.espn.com