LeBron James of Miami Heat clinched on the 29th position of the NBA’s all time scoring list against Sacramento Kings by surpassing the all time NBA legends Larry Bird and Gary Payton on friday.
LBJ crossed Bird (now 31st all-time) in the first quarter of the gameagainst the Kings with his all time favorite windmill dunk, and without any delay passed Payton (now 30th all-time) with an off-balanced three-pointer.
He managed to put up 33 points , with the final score board leaving to 108-103 with a loss to bear. Bird has scored 21,791 points during his 13-year NBA span (all for Boston). He played 897 career games (excluding playoffs). He is also currently appointed as the president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers.
However, Payton scored 21,813 points during his career in 1,335 games played. He spent all of his career contributing to the Seattle Supersonics and was offered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year.
After tonight’s contest, James has played added a total of 794 career games (excluding playoffs) in his 11th season as a pro. With the 33 points adding to his score card James has now managed a 21,819 career points (six ahead of Payton, 28 ahead of Bird).
It may all look really surprising of James reaching such great positions, But it should also be pointed that its his 11th season of NBA.
Bleacher Reports spotted him mentioning: “Oh, wow,” He started. “Two of the greatest, two Hall of Famers, two champions, man. To be able to do that, I don’t know if it means a lot scoring, but it shows I’ve been very durable in my career.”
James enters Friday’s game averaging 25.2 points per game on 59.5 percent scoring from the field. His career-high scoring average in a season is 31.4 points per game in 2005-06 against Cleveland Cavaliers.