LeBron James won’t be looking back at the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night too fondly. The 138-94 loss saw the largest margin of defeat in his career, but by scoring 18 points in the game, he now has more points than Magic Johnson and Larry Bird put together in the regular season and playoffs combined
LeBron became the first player in NBA history to get to 39,000 points in the regular season earlier this month and now has 47,101 points to his name in total. Of those points, 39,078 have come in the regular season and 8,023 in the playoffs.
Bird, meanwhile, finished his career with 25,688 points, with 21,791 coming in the regular season, and 3,897 in the playoffs. Lastly, Magic has 21,408 points, with 17,701 in the regular season, and 3,701 in the postseason
Combine the totals of Bird and Magic and you get 47,096 points, as compared to 47,101 for LeBron and it is truly remarkable how King James now passed their combined tally. You’re talking about two of the game’s all-time greats and while Johnson was not a score-first player, this is still a ridiculous feat on LeBron’s part.
The crazy thing, of course, is that he’s going to finish well clear of their combined total by the time he is done playing. In his 21st season in the NBA in 2023-24, LeBron is averaging 25.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game.
You’d think the 38-year-old has a couple of good seasons left in him the way he is going, and he is going to finish at some ridiculous number.
While LeBron has set the all-time NBA record for points, he is not the all-time leading scorer in the history of basketball. That title belongs to Brazilian legend Oscar Schmidt, who retired with 49,737 points.
It is not a title that Schmidt will hold for too much longer, of course. When you combine all the points that James has scored in the NBA and with Team USA, he now has 48,108 points to his name.
LeBron just needs 1,630 points to pass the Brazilian and while it might not be possible for him to do it this season, he will get it done in the 2024-25 campaign. LeBron will eventually pass 50,000 points and the only question is what that number will be when he retires.
I think he has an outside shot at getting to 55,000, but it depends on just how much longer he keeps playing. His goal had always been to play with his eldest son Bronny, who should enter the league next year, but it appears there is a new goal in mind.
Savannah James sent LeBron an inspirational message, where she told him to play with his younger son Bryce as well. The earliest that Bryce can enter the NBA is in 2026 and if LeBron does end up playing in the 2026-27 season, then I don’t think 55,000 is beyond reach.