It has been over a year since LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for first place on the NBA all-time scoring list. Since then, the Lakers’ superstar has averaged roughly 26 points per game, and is on the verge of setting a mark that could ultimately prove unbeatable.

LeBron James Needs Just 9 Points To Hit 40k For His Career

LeBron James does it again:

31 points (9 away from 40K career)

9 assists

4 rebounds

Don’t take it for granted. pic.twitter.com/rLIx9ICutN

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 1, 2024

Coming into Thursday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, James was 40 points shy of being the first ever player to score 40,000 points in his career. Going into Saturday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, he’ll be just 9 short of the mark.

The Lakers were listed as 10.5 point favorites over the Wizards, but Jordan Poole had other ideas. Washington’s struggling star was able to put up a season-high 34 points and lead his team to overtime against heavily favored Los Angeles, though the Washington seemingly ran out of gas in the extra period on their way to a 134-131 defeat.

LeBron had 27 points entering overtime, and hit a three pointer and one of his two foul shots in the final five minutes to bring his total for the evening to 31, and 39,991 for his career.

James Could Hit The Mark In The First Quarter

LeBron is 9 points away from 40,000 career points..

He hasn’t scored less than 10 since January 7, 2007.

The Lakers play the Nuggets on Saturday pic.twitter.com/JgejOC2Wcm

— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) March 1, 2024

Scoring 9 points against the Nuggets in his next game shouldn’t be much of a problem for James, and there’s a good chance that he’ll be gunning for the mark in the first quarter on Saturday. He is averaging over 25 per in his 21st season, and hasn’t had a single-game point total under 20 since January 11th (17 straight games). He hasn’t scored in single digits since January 2007. In two games against Denver so far this season, James is averaging 23 per.

It is a mark unlikely to be broken for at least a generation of NBA players. The next highest active player on the all-time scoring list is Kevin Durant, who is nearly 12,000 points shy of LeBron and will turn 36 years old before the start of next season. He would have to average nearly 25 points a game and play at least 60 games a season for the next 8 years in order to pass 40,000 for his career.

James Harden is more than 14,400 points back, and Russell Westbrook is 600 points behind him.

LeBron and the Lakers have now won 9 of their last 12 games, and remain in the 9th spot in the Western Conference and a half-game up on the Golden State Warriors.