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On Jan. 15, in a home game against the Philadelphia Sixers at the Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles, Lakers’ forward Lebron James hit a mid-range jumper assisted by point guard Russell Westbrook, to surpass 38,000 career NBA points– making him the youngest NBA player to ever accomplish this feat. 

James, who is currently averaging 29.6 points this NBA season became the second player in NBA history to surpass the 38,000 points milestone behind Lakers’ hall of fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who ended his NBA career with 38,387 points.

James is in his 20th NBA season and already has the all-time record for the most combined NBA points in history with 45,223 and the NBA record for the most 20-point games in the regular season with 1,135. He is also sixth on the NBA all time assists list and ninth in the NBA all time steals list.  

With the numbers he’s averaging this season, as well as him being in good health, James is expected to break Abdul-Jabbar’s all time points record this season, some even predict James will break the record before the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 19. The NBA’s Lebron James Scoring Tracker keeps track of how close James is to being number one on the NBA’s all time scoring list.

The significance of James closing in on Kareem is because of its rarity. Since Abdul-Jabbar’s retirement in 1989, James is the only player in 30+ years who has come within 1,000 points of Abdul-Jabbar’s record. The only other active player in the NBA all-time points’ top 15 players is Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant, who currently sits at 14th place with 26, 684 points. Among that list includes well-known, retired, basketball greats such as Kobe Bryant; third all time in points with 33,643, Michael Jordan; fourth on the list with 32,292 points and Shaquille O’Neal; eighth on the list with 28,596 points.

The NBA’s regular season all-time points list can be found here.