Lakers' LeBron James Eclipses 40,000 Career Points; Could Mavs' Luka Doncic Eventually Reach Milestone?
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James already became the NBA's all-time leading scorer last season, and now he just became the first player to ever eclipse 40,000 career points in a loss against the defending-champion Denver Nuggets on Saturday. James finished with 26 points, giving him 40,017 career points.
James' latest accomplishment got us thinking about what Dallas Mavericks young star Luka Doncic would have to do over the remainder of his career to reach that seemingly-untouchable milestone. Doncic, who just turned 25 years old last week, is the NBA's leading scorer this season at 34.5 points per game, and he has 10,892 points in 382 career games played.
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Assuming Doncic plays in all of the Mavs final 22 games this season and maintains his 34.5 points-per-game average, that would put him at 11,651 with six full NBA seasons in the books. If Doncic averaged 30 points per game and played in all 82 games going forward – which, let's be real ... that won't happen given the insane load he has to carry every year – it would take him nearly 12 more full seasons to eclipse 40,000 career points.
If Doncic ends up playing 20 seasons or more while keeping up his incredible scoring pace, perhaps there's a chance he could get there. However, it takes unprecedented endurance and longevity to reach that point, as James has shown us, and besides ... Doncic himself doesn't know if he can see himself playing that long.
"No," Doncic said when asked by former teammate J.J. Redick if he ever thinks about breaking LeBron's record one day. "I am not playing that long, no chance. I'm going to have my own farm in Slovenia."
Doncic says that now, but if health permits, and the Mavs win a championship or two in the near future, that natural want for more might be too much for the 25-year-old phenom to turn down. Greatness coincides with being obsessive, and Doncic has what it takes to chase LeBron if he makes up his mind to do so.
