Seven players in the history of the NBA have scored at least 30,000 career points. There is one active player that could make a run at 30K, depending on how many years he has left playing in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony owns 28,289 points, which ranks ninth all-time. The player just above him is Shaquille O’Neal, with 28,596 career points. Everyone else is a member of the 30K club.
- Dirk Nowitzki – 1,377 Games
- Kobe Bryant – 1,180 Games
- Karl Malone – 1,152 Games
- LeBron James – 1,107 Games
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – 1,101 Games
- Michael Jordan – 960 Games
- Wilt Chamberlain – 940 Games
- Next
- Michael Jordan’s Career-High Against Every NBA Team: The GOAT Destroyed The Cleveland Cavaliers
- Wilt Chamberlain’s Career-High Against Every NBA Team: 100 Points Against The Knicks Are Still Unbelievable
- Kobe Bryant’s Career-High Against Every NBA Team: 81 Points Against The Raptors Are The Record Of The 21st Century
- 25 NBA Legends And Superstars Career-Highs In Points: Wilt Chamberlain Holds The Record With 100 Points, Kobe Bryant Is No. 2 With 81 Points
- Michael Jordan’s Perfect Record Against NBA Rivals: 310 Players Never Won Against The GOAT
For some of those players, it took a full career to reach that. That might have been 15 or more seasons in the league. While durability is impressive in its own right, some other players took less time. The fact they were able to accomplish 30,000 points in fewer games is amazing. Two players took less than 1,000 games to reach that milestone.
Can you guess who those players were? These are the players, and their games, that reached 30,000 career points.
Dirk Nowitzki – 1,377 Games
Nowitzki played for the Mavericks between 1998 to 2019. He amassed 1,522 career games in the NBA. He owns a record for playing with one team for consecutive seasons. For Nowitzki, he needed all of those games to get over the hump, especially when you factor in his two first seasons. Nowitzki did not break into the scene right away like others. He averaged 8.2 points in 47 games his rookie season but jumped to 17.5 points in 82 games his sophomore year.
Nowitzki was incredibly durable. Between 1999 to 2010, he played at least 76 games during the regular season. During that time, he averaged more than 20.0 points per game, including his career-best 26.6 points per game during the 2005-06 season. Even when he got older, he managed to play 70 or more games five times between 2010 to 2019.
Kobe Bryant – 1,180 Games
Bryant took more games to get going in the NBA. He played in 150 games his first two seasons and averaged 7.6 and 15.4 points per game respectively. Bryant then embarked on a legendary scoring career, which included scoring 30.0 points per game during the 2002-03 season. That number ballooned to 35.4 points per game during the 2005-06 season, which included an 81-point outburst. That single-game scoring mark remains the best mark we have seen since Wilt Chamberlain set the record in 1962.
Between 1999 to 2015, Bryant averaged at least 20.0 points per game 15 times. Bryant reached 80 games six times during that span. Even when he didn’t play in 80 games, he took enough shots to make up for the games he missed. Bryant was the Lakers’ offense after Shaquille O’Neal left. Even when Shaq played, Bryant was a focal point of the offensive attack. He remains one of the greatest scorers we have ever seen in the modern era.
Karl Malone – 1,152 Games
Malone never seemed to break. Malone played in 80 or more games for 13 consecutive years. He would have made it 14 had the lockout never happened. After the lockout, he played in 80 games in four more seasons. All of this came with the Jazz. When Malone was on the floor, he scored, scored, and then scored some more. With John Stockton setting him up, Malone managed to finish his career with second-most points.
Today, Malone ranks third on the all-time list since LeBron James passed him. Malone averaged 20.0 points per game every single year with the Jazz. His best season came during the 1989-90 campaign when he averaged 31.0 points per game. Malone won the MVP Award in 1997 when he averaged 27.4 points. At the time, Malone was the best finisher since the days of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when it came to points.
LeBron James – 1,107 Games
When James broke onto the scene in 2003, he made an immediate impact with the Cavaliers by averaging 20.9 points per game. That is something that James has made frequent in his career. At 27.1 points per game for his career, James has never averaged less than 20.0 points per game for a season. James won a scoring title in 2007-08 when he averaged 30.0 points per game. Last year, James averaged 30.3 points per game in 56 games at the age of 37.
Before last year, James was able to surpass 30,000 career points. James averaged at least 27.0 points per game 10 times in his career. As James enters another season in the league, he is chasing down the all-time career mark. Barring any injury, James should reach that milestone. When you look at how close his points and games are to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, it makes sense he is the one that will hold this record when it is all said and done.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – 1,101 Games
Like LeBron, Abdul-Jabbar broke onto the scene early in his career, but he did it more grandly. Abdul-Jabbar’s first three years with the Bucks were sensational. He averaged 28.8 points per game in his rookie season. Then, he averaged 31.7 and 34.8 points per game, which led the NBA in scoring. He played in 81 games in all three seasons. Abdul-Jabbar played in 80 or more games in nine of his first 12 seasons in the league.
During that time, he never averaged less than 25.0 points per game. His total points were the league leader for the first three years of his career. That included seven seasons with at least 2,000 total points. Abdul-Jabbar remains the all-time leading scorer. With LeBron lurking in the shadows, we could see him drop to second place after the 2022-23 season.
Michael Jordan – 960 Games
Two players have made it to the 30K Club by playing in less than 1,000 games. One of those players is Michael Jordan. The greatest Bull ever came onto the league strong by scoring over 2,300 total points in his first season in the league at 21 years old. After an injury cut his second season short, Jordan rattled off seven consecutive seasons of scoring over 2,000 points. That included 3,041 points during the 1986-87 season.
Jordan played in at least 80 games all but two times from 1984 to 1993. After a brief retirement, Jordan played 82 games in a season three straight years during the second three-peat season. He scored over 2,350 points in all these seasons. Had Jordan never retired, we might be talking about him as the all-time leading scorer. Given how efficient he was, it’s not a false reality that we could have been living in.
Wilt Chamberlain – 940 Games
Chamberlain was able to score 100 of his 31,419 points in one game. His NBA record for single-game scoring remains today. During that season, Chamberlain scored 4,029 total points. From the start of his career, Chamberlain scored over 2,500 total points in seven straight seasons, which led the NBA each season. Chamberlain nearly hit 2,000 points in 1967 and 1968 but finished with 1,956 and 1,992 points, respectively.
When it came to games, Chamberlain played at least 70 games between 1959 to 1969. During that time, he averaged more than 30.0 points per game seven times. That included an NBA-record 50.4 points per game in 1961-62. Chamberlain remains the greatest rebounder in league history. What we can never forget is that he was able to finish at the rim as well.
