{"id":522528,"date":"2026-03-06T13:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522528\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T13:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:05:08","slug":"nba-lebron-james-surpasses-kareem-abdul-jabbar-to-claim-field-goal-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522528\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA: LeBron James surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to claim field-goal record"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most field goals scored in NBA history as the Los Angeles Lakers lost at the Denver Nuggets on Thursday.<\/p>\n

James scored 16 points for the Lakers in the 120-113 defeat and passed Abdul-Jabbar’s tally of 15,837 during the first quarter.<\/p>\n

The 41-year-old, who is playing in an unprecedented 23rd NBA season, passed Abdul-Jabbar to become the top scorer in NBA history<\/a> in February 2023.<\/p>\n

Last year he became the first player to reach 50,000 points combined<\/a> in the regular season and post-season, and currently has 43,127 in the regular season alone.<\/p>\n

“Being mentioned with some of the greatest to ever play this game has always been humbling,” said James, the league’s four-time Most Valuable Player.<\/p>\n

“I grew up watching, reading [about], idolising a lot of the greats, and if I was able to be part of the NBA, I wanted to put myself in position that I can be named with some of the greats by doing something right.<\/p>\n

“It’s a pretty cool feat, but it’s hard for me to kind of wrap my head around it or what it looks like.”<\/p>\n

Lakers coach JJ Redick likened the evolution of James’ career to that of Bruce Springsteen, saying: “You get to the end and you’re like, ‘this guy’s greatest hits are like insane’.<\/p>\n

“And LeBron’s greatest hits, he just keeps adding to them. He just plays and plays and plays and the greatest hits, he’s got a hell of a catalogue.”<\/p>\n

James passed Abdul-Jabbar’s points record before field goals as three-point shots were introduced midway through the NBA legend’s career.<\/p>\n

The six-time champion spent most of his 20-year career with the Lakers and retired in 1989 having scored 55.9% of his 28,307 shots. James has a 51.6% scoring rate.<\/p>\n

The four-time champion is set to claim another record as Thursday’s game was his 1,606th in the regular season, putting him five behind Robert Parish.<\/p>\n

James earned his 22nd All-Star selection this year<\/a> and says he has not decided whether he will continue playing next season.<\/p>\n

Fellow All Stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray each scored 28 points for Denver, who stayed fifth in the Western Conference standings, one spot above the Lakers.<\/p>\n

Second-placed San Antonio claimed their 13th victory from 14 games, with Victor Wembanyama returning to top form with 38 points and 16 rebounds as the Spurs won 121-106 at home against the Detroit Pistons, who lead the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most field goals scored in NBA history as the Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-522528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}