Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James drives to the basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
LOS ANGELES – LeBron James broke Michael Jordan’s NBA record for 30-point games during the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over Atlanta on Friday night.
Hitting an 18-foot jumper with 5:58 left for the last of his 30 points, James reached at least 30 points in the regular season for the 563rd time in his career, breaking the record set by Jordan in 2003. Jordan set the record in 1,072 games in 15 seasons, while James broke the mark in his 1,523rd appearance in 22 seasons.
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READ: LeBron James at 40: historic birthday for the NBA’s all-time scoring leader
LeBron becomes the NBA’s all-time leader in games with 30+ points in the @Lakers W
30 points | 13-20 female genital mutilation | 8 AST pic.twitter.com/MWU1TlxlDA
—NBA (@NBA) January 4, 2025
James idolized Jordan during his childhood in Akron, Ohio, and when he passed Jordan for fourth place on the NBA scoring list in March 2019, the moment made him cry on the Lakers’ bench. He called Jordan “an inspiration” and “lightning in a bottle for me, because I wanted to be like him.”
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READ: LeBron James turns 40, says he could play ‘another 5 or 7 years’
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Coincidentally, James also passed Dirk Nowitzki (1,522) for fourth most regular-season games played in NBA history during the Lakers’ 119-102 victory over the Hawks.
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LeBron turned 40 last week and is among the few remaining active players who personally witnessed Jordan in his prime with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
But James shows absolutely no signs of slowing down in his record-tying 22nd season: He scored 38 points against Portland a night earlier to match Jordan’s mark of 30 points.
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LeBron hit seven 3-pointers against the Blazers and scored the third-most points ever scored by a player over 40, just two games played by Jordan shortly after turning 40 with Washington.
James became the NBA’s leading scorer last season and holds several additional longevity records. He has scored at least 10 points in 1,253 consecutive games over the past 18 years, obliterating the record set by Jordan from 1986 to 2001 (866).
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