LeBron James becomes first basketball player to reach 40,000 career points in NBA

By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp

The Los Angeles Lakers’ veteran star LeBron James became the first player to reach 40,000 regular season career points in the NBA.

James dropped the historic point in Sunday's NBA game against the Denver Nuggets, which ended in a 123-114 Nuggets victory at Crypto.com Arena.

"Being the first player to do something, it’s pretty cool in this league, just knowing the history, the greats that’s come through the league and then you see some of the greats on the floor tonight, it was great to compete," James said, "But for me, the main thing, as always, is to win, and I hated that it had to happen in a defeat."

Former Lakers player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar placed second in the NBA’s all-time points leaderboard with 38,387 points, while another former Lakers star Karl Malone is placed third with 36,928 points in regular season points in the NBA.

The date March 2 is also significant in NBA history for another reason, in 1962, late basketball superstar Wilt Chamberlain managed to drop 100 points -- still standing strong today in NBA -- in a regular season match.