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National Basketball Association (NBA) player LeBron James (40-LA Lakers) has reached the 40,000-point mark in his career.

James reached the milestone on March 3 during the Lakers' home game against the Denver Nuggets at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, USA. Prior to this game, James had scored 39,991 points, leaving him just nine points shy of the 40,000-point mark. James had been on fire in his last four games, posting scores of 30, 28, 34, and 31 points, so he had a good chance of reaching the milestone.

James scored the first points of the night on a layup just 5:40 into the game. A minute and six seconds later, his first three-pointer hit the rim. After scoring five points in the first quarter, James scored two points to start the second quarter and completed his 40,000th point with a right-handed layup at the 1:21 mark.

James, who made his NBA debut in the 2003-2004 season, was frustrated early in his career by his clunky scoring technique. Determined to fix it, James borrowed Kobe Bryant's (who died in 2020) technique when he was on the U.S. team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 스포츠토토 relentlessly asking him about his jump shot. In 2010, he paid to take lessons from Hakeem Olajuwon (60-retired), the '90s center known for his fluid post-ups. It seemed stiff at the time, but James kept trying new techniques and learning from his mistakes.

It paid off, and by 2012, when he won his first championship, and by 2016, when he won his third, no one would ever accuse him of lacking scoring skills. And so, at age 40, when he had lost much of his athleticism, James remained one of the league's top scorers, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points) for the NBA's all-time scoring lead on Feb. 8 of last year against Oklahoma City. He reached the 40,000-point milestone in his 1475th career regular-season game.