Lakers' LeBron James passes Michael Jordan for most 30-point games in NBA history
01/04/2025 01:21 AM
LeBron James is the undisputed longevity king of the NBA, and even though he’s already turned 40 years of age, he continues to be one of the best players in the association — a ceaseless ageless wonder. On Friday night, during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 119-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks, James once again played a starring role, putting up 30 points and eight assists while shooting a pristine 13-20 from the field (65 percent).
And in the process of crossing the 30-point mark for what seems to be the millionth time in his career, James became the all-time leader for most 30-point games in NBA history, notching his 563rd such game (only counting the regular season), as per the official Lakers account on X (formerly Twitter). James surpassed Michael Jordan, the former all-time leader, who posted 562 30-point games during his 15-year NBA career.
Some may argue that James needed to play a ton more games to accomplish this feat than Jordan had to, which, to some, would dampen this accomplishment. After all, there is a tribalistic, and almost animalistic urge to defend Jordan and his feats every time the conversation between who the better player is between him and the Lakers star comes up.
But Jordan, of course, did manage to average 30.1 points per game for his career, which is a testament to how unstoppable of a scoring force he was during his heyday. However, no one should ever knock James for needing 451 more games to surpass Jordan in this regard, especially when his scoring game isn’t the most well-regarded part of his career.
At the end of the day, the Lakers star should be celebrated for remaining as healthy as he is even though Father Time is doing its absolute best to catch up with him. There are more signs than ever that age is catching up to James, but on Friday night, he showed that age truly is just a number.
LeBron James puts Hawks’ defense to the sword in Lakers win
LeBron James was quite the unstoppable force on Friday night in their 16-point victory over the Hawks. Atlanta had no answers for the Lakers star, with James’ jumpshot being on point for the entire night.
James got into a rhythm with a few three-pointers, and that only served to make him catch fire more easily later on in the game. It did not matter which defender was tasked at guarding James, as he was hitting seemingly everything he was throwing up — including fadeaway jumpers that were reminiscent of his evisceration of the Toronto Raptors back in the 2018 NBA playoffs.
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