The Suns honor Kevin Durant with a tribute video after he becomes the 8th player in NBA history to score 30,000 career points.
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Kevin Durant became the eighth player in NBA history to score 30,000 career points, reaching the mark against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night with a free throw late in the third quarter.
Durant joins an exclusive club that includes LeBron James, (41,623) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643), Michael Jordan (32.292), Dirk Nowitzki (31,560) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419). Julius Erving also hit the mark when combining his points scored in the NBA and ABA.
“It’s a true honor to be in the same category as those players who helped shape the game and pushed the game forward,” Durant said. “That’s always been my goal is to get the most out of myself every day, get the most out of my career. To be mentioned with those guys, I must be doing something right.”
Durant reached the milestone in his 1,101st career game – the exact same number as Abdul-Jabbar. Only Wilt Chamberlain (941) and and Michael Jordan (960) got there faster.
The 15-time All-Star has averaged at least 20 points in every season and continues to put the ball in the hoop at a high rate, scoring 27.1 points per game this season while shooting 52.8% from the field.
Durant scored 17,566 points over his first nine seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were the Seattle SuperSonics during his first season in 2007-08. He’s also played for the Golden State Warriors (5,374 points), Brooklyn Nets (3,744) and the Suns (3,324).
Durant finished with 34 points on 12-of-18 shooting in the Phoenix Suns’ 119-112 loss.
He sits at 30,008 career points – and counting.
Since arriving in the NBA as the No. 2 pick in the 2007 Draft, Durant has been a scoring machine, racking up points from all over the court, and winning four scoring titles in the process. That ranks third behind Jordan (10) and Chamberlain (seven).
As the shot chart of Durant’s 10,331 career buckets entering Wednesday night shows, there’s a decided lack of white space.
A common phrase uttered by great scorers is one of “getting to my spots.” For Durant, the entire court is “his spot.”
His center-like height (Durant is 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan ), guard-like skills and elite athleticism have separated him from other scorers in the NBA.
Even in the so-called unicorn era where bigs have expanded their range to the perimeter, they still can’t score at all three levels as Durant does so effortlessly. His Instagram handle, “@EasyMoneySniper,” accurately depicts his game as he’s a lethal scorer but does so with ease and smoothness to his game.
See how evenly spread out Durant’s 29,974 career points are. The only zone not well represented is the corner 3-pointer, which makes sense considering corner 3-pointers are highly used by 3-point specialists. Durant is the furthest thing from a specialist: he’s simply a scorer.
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NBA Legend Magic Johnson Makes Bold Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Statement
Los Angeles Lakers legends Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are one of the best duos in NBA history.
On Tuesday, the two were seen at the game between UCLA and Michigan State.
Via Big Ten Network: "LA Lakers legends and teammates Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came out to see their former programs battle on the court ????"
After the game, Johnson sent out a post about his former teammate that had over 2,500 likes in three hours.
Johnson wrote: "I love my captain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Without question he's the GOAT of college basketball - and its not even close! @kaj33"
Abdul-Jabbar played three seasons for UCLA, and they won the NCAA Championship in all three years.
His career averages (in college) were 26.4 points and 15.5 rebounds per contest while shooting 63.9% from the field in 88 games.
Johnson also wrote in 2020: "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/Lew Alcindor is decisively the undisputed GOAT of college basketball! During his 3 years at UCLA he led the Bruins to an 88-2 record, won 3 National Championships, was 3X National College Player of the Year, AND was 3X NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player."
With the Lakers, Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar won five titles.
Via Ballislife.Com: "One of the greatest duos in NBA history!
Magic & Kareem went to the NBA Finals 8 times together between 1980 and 1989 and won 5 of them."
As for Tuesday's game, UCLA won by a score of 63-61.
They have been unable to win a title since the 1995 season.