Doug Christie's message for Kings' DeMar DeRozan after passing Allen Iverson
01/20/2025 11:59 AM
The Sacramento Kings continue to flourish under interim head coach Doug Christie, who steered the team to a 123-100 blowout win over the Washington Wizards at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Sunday. But the meeting with the Wizards can also be best remembered for the individual milestone that veteran bucket-getter DeMar DeRozan reached.
The 35-year-old DeRozan surpassed NBA legend and former Philadelphia 76ers superstar guard Allen Iverson on the NBA’s all-time scoring list during the Wizards game. DeRozan entered that contest 30th on the list with 24,355 points, needing just 14 points to move past Iverson. DeRozan proceeded to light up the scoreboards with 24 points on 9-for-21 shooting from the floor to go with six rebounds, two steals and an assist in 38 minutes to help Sacramento eke out its 22nd win in the 2024-25 NBA regular season — and, of course, to move up to the 29th spot on the all-time NBA scoring list.
Christie had nothing but great words for DeRozan after the game.
"Congratulations to DeMar DeRozan for getting the 29th all-time in the NBA in scoring," Christie told reporters in the postgame press conference, including Sean Cunningham of FOX40 News. "That's special. If you pass Allen Iverson in anything, you're doing something, so to my man, much respect. DeMar is, he is what a pro is all about."
For what it’s worth, Iverson needed 914 games to get to 24,368 points while DeRozan passed AI after 1,147 regular-season games in the NBA. However, DeRozan jacked up only 18,627 field goal attempts to Iverson’s 19,906. Iverson also made 6,375 free throws while DeRozan has sunk 6,344.
Kings are finding their groove with Doug Christie
The Kings have seemingly turned things around since firing Mike Brown and replacing him temporarily with Christie. Sacramento has gone 9-2 since Christie started calling the shots for the Kings, who also defeated the Houston Rockets last Thursday before taking down the Wizards.
Sacramento is averaging 116.7 points per game in the 2024-25 NBA regular season but over the team’s last 10 games, the Kings have produced more, having put up 122.1 points over that span while shooting 46.7 percent from the floor and 37.3 percent from deep.
The 22-20 Kings will look to win their 10th game under Christie on Wednesday versus the Golden State Warriors at home.
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