LOS ANGELES — LeBron James, who turned 40 recently, moved past Michael Jordan for the most 30-point games in NBA regular season history during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 119-102 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday (IST).
LeBron’s 30 points on the night saw him hit the 30-point mark for the 563rd time in his career, to move past Jordan who set the record in 2003. Jordan set the record in 1,072 games over 15 seasons, while LeBron broke the mark in his 1,523rd appearance over 22 seasons.
With 5:58 minutes left to play in the game, LeBron hit an 18-foot jumper to reach yet another milestone. On the same night he moved past Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki to have played the fourth most games in NBA history with 1,522 games.
LeBron entered the league as a 18-year old in 2002, directly from high-school, and joined his home-town team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. After entering as one of the biggest rookie prospects in the league history, he has dominated the game for 22-years, a feat which has never been accomplished in any sport.
On his 40th birthday, LeBron reflected on his career and claimed he could still play at a high level for another five-seven years.
“To just wake up and just be like, ‘Oh shoot, oh damn, you’re 40?. It’s kind of laughable, really, to know where I am, to see where I am still playing the game at a high level, still being such a young man but old in the scheme of how many years I got in this profession.
“If I really wanted to, I could probably play this game at a high level probably for about another — it’s weird that I might say this — but probably about another five to seven years, if I wanted to. But I’m not going to do that. I would miss the hell out of (basketball), for sure. But no, I won’t walk away and come back,” LeBron said.