LeBron James Becomes Third Player in 35,000 Point Club

James is the youngest of the three to reach the 35,000 point milestone.

Make room, Kareem and the Mailman: King James has arrived.

LeBron James joined the 35,000-point club during the first half of Thursday's game against the Nets. He becomes the third player in NBA history to accomplish that feat, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. At 36 years and 50 days, James is the youngest of the three to reach the milestone. Abdul-Jabbar was 38 when he scored his 35,000th point, while Malone was 39.

James's milestone comes 19 years to the day after he was first featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, headlined "The Chosen One." The story profiled James, then a high school junior, during his rise as one of the biggest stars in prep basketball history.

Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, finishing his career with 38,387 points. Malone ranks second with 36,928. James is already the league's career leader in playoff scoring, with 7,491 points. Michael Jordan is second at 5,987.

Earlier on Thursday, James was named to his 17th career All-Star game. He has won All-Star Game MVP honors three times.


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Nick Selbe
NICK SELBE

Nick Selbe is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about baseball and college sports. Before joining SI in March 2020 as a breaking/trending news writer, he worked for MLB Advanced Media, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. Selbe received a bachelor's in communication from the University of Southern California.