LeBron James breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA all-time scoring record / News - Basketnews.com

LeBron James became the NBA's top-scorer of all time after breaking the scoring record by Kareem Abdul Jabbar. LeBron scored 36th point vs. Oklahoma City Thunder in the 3rd quarter and now has 38,388 points in total.

Credit: AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill - Scanpix Credit AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill - Scanpix

LeBron James made history, becoming the NBA's top-scorer of all time after scoring 36th point vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, taking his total to 38,388 points.

Player of the Game EFF 27 Jaylin Williams Points 14 Accuracy 4-6 Rebounds 7 Assists 7

James made a step-back jumper with 10.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The game was temporarily stopped to honor LeBron's achievement.

Kareem symbolically passed the ball to James, which looked like the pass of a torch.

In a 130-133 loss vs. Thunder, Jamesfinished with 38 points (9/14 2PT, 4/6 3PT, 8/10 FT), 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 4 turnovers.

Abdul-Jabbar has been atop the career points list since April 5, 1984, when he broke the mark previously held by Wilt Chamberlain. Now, James is the new record holder.

Top 10 NBA All-Time points leaders

Rank Player Points Games Minutes FGM FG% 1. LeBron James 38,390 1,409 53,742 14,053 50.5 2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 38,387 1,560 57,446 15,837 55.9 3. Karl Malone 36,928 1,476 54,852 13,528 51.6 4. Kobe Bryant 33,643 1,346 48,643 11,719 44.7 5. Michael Jordan 32,292 1,072 41,010 12,192 49.7 6. Dirk Nowitzki 31,560 1,522 51,367 11,169 47.1 7. Wilt Chamberlain 31,419 1,045 47,859 12,681 54.0 8. Shaquille O'Neal 28,596 1,207 41,917 11,330 58.2 9. Carmelo Anthony 28,289 1,260 43,513 10,119 44.7 10. Moses Malone 27,409 1,329 45,071 9,435 49.1

"The scoring record was never, ever even thought of in my head because I've always been a pass-first guy," James admitted to ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

LeBron's most efficient season points-wise was back in the 2005-06 season. Back then, he scored 2478 points in total (averaging 31.4 points per game). Over his career, James scored more than 2000 points in one season ten times.

"LeBron has taken care of himself so well, and he's been able to play a bundle of games for a lot of years," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "His commitment to the game and to what he has to do has allowed himself to be in this position."

LeBron only led the NBA in scoring for one season. By comparison, Adrian Dantley, who's not even among the top 30 scorers of all time, did that twice. By comparison, Jordan did that 10 times.

"It's just amazing to watch him," Luka Doncic said earlier this season. "It's his 20th season, and what he's doing -- he's scoring 30, 40 almost every night. He's just incredible."

3-pointers this season

34%10,5Points made:10,5Accuracy:33,8%Place in standings:29Record max:19Record min:4Most made 3FGs:LeBron JamesTeamNBAStatisticsSchedule

After becoming the NBA's top scorer of all-time, James is also among the top 10 players in a few other key statistical categories:

Games played – 9-10th (1409 games played in total) Minutes played – 3rd (53,742 minutes played in total) Points – 1st (38,390 points in total) Assists – 4th (10,354 assists in total) Steals – 9th (2,179 steals in total) Defensive rebounds – 10th (8,931 defensive rebounds in total) Field goals made – 2nd (14,053 field goals made in total) Field goals attempted – 2nd (27,829 field goals attempted in total) 3-pointers made – 9th (2,237 3-pointers made in total) 3-pointers attempted – 4th (6,494 3-pointers attempted in total) Free throws made – 4th (8,047 free throws made in total) Free throws attempted – 5th (10,949 free throws attempted in total) Turnovers – 1st (4,926 turnovers in total) Thank you for reading us! Help us even more.