# Luka Dončić hails ‘amazing’ LeBron James as Lakers star passes 50,000 points

## Agencies

* 40-year-old passes mark with three-pointer
* Lakers have won eight of their last 10 games

 is redefining basketball longevity. On Tuesday night he became the first player to score 50,000 combined points in the  regular season and postseason, surpassing the mark with a three-pointer early in the first quarter of the ’ 136-115 win over New Orleans.

James finished with 34 points against the Pelicans after toppling another milestone in his unprecedented career.

“I mean, that’s a lot of points,” James said after the game. “Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is where I’m from. Picking up the game when I was a little kid and having a love for the sport, and hoping that someday I’d be able to play at the highest level. I’ve been able to do that and really enjoy my career. So it’s definitely an honor. It’s pretty cool to see that.”

James was already the top scorer in  history in both the regular season and the playoffs. Maintaining a spectacular level of play midway through his record-tying 22nd season, he is pulling away from the other greats of the game: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 20 seasons in the NBA, is a distant second with 44,149 combined points.

James got his milestone three-pointer off an assist by Luka Dončić, a piece of trivia that pleased both stars. Dončić’s arrival in  with the Dallas Mavericks has invigorated both James and the Lakers, who look like championship contenders, with a seven-game winning streak and 17 victories in their last 20 games.

“It’s amazing, watching him do this stuff at this age,” said Dončić, who had 30 points, 15 assists and eight rebounds against New Orleans. “It’s just unbelievable, that 50K points. I can’t even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70K. You never know.”

The Lakers recognized the milestone at the next timeout, with the public address announcer saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, we all have just witnessed history.” James acknowledged the standing ovation with several waves from the bench.

James is tied with Vince Carter for the most seasons played in NBA history. But James’s game shows few signs of decline in his 40s. He was named the NBA’s Western Conference player of the month earlier on Tuesday after he averaged 29.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.2 steals in February while playing more than 35 minutes per game for the Lakers, who went 9-2 to surge into second place in the West. With their victory over the Pelicans, the Lakers improved to 11-2 since acquiring Dončić.

James has played in 1,548 regular-season games, trailing only Robert Parish (1,611) and Abdul-Jabbar (1,560). If he stays healthy and elects to return for a record 23rd season, he will most likely surpass Parish next winter.

James has also played in 287 postseason games, the most in NBA history. He became the league’s career playoff scoring leader in 2017, when he surpassed Michael Jordan’s total of 5,987 during the Cleveland Cavaliers’s Eastern Conference finals game at Boston. James then became  in February 2023, when he topped Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points during the Lakers’s game against Oklahoma City.

After the game, James said retaining a passion for the game was crucial in his record-setting career.

“Just not falling out of love with the process,” James said. “Continuing to fall in love with the process, that’s the hardest thing, every single year. You know it’s going to be a long season. It’s 82 games, 41 of them are on the road. It’s a lot of travel. And as you get older, it affects you even differently. If you have a family, it affects you even differently. So the process. Trying not to fall out of love with the process is the hardest thing.”

James’s prolific scoring is due in large part to his metronomic consistency. With his performance against the Pelicans, he has scored at least 10 points in 1,278 consecutive games since 6 January 2007 – by far the longest such streak in NBA history.

James’s player of the month award for February was his 41st, extending his own league record. He is also the oldest player to win the award, surpassing a 37-year-old Karl Malone in November 2000.
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