LeBron James became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in 2023. On February 7, 2023, he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Abdul-Jabbar had held the regular-season scoring record since 1984, when he surpassed Wilt Chamberlain. James entered the 2022–23 season within striking distance and reached the milestone with a fourth-quarter fadeaway jumper over Kenrich Williams. The game was briefly stopped so the arena could recognize the achievement.
The record concerns regular-season NBA points, not combined regular-season and playoff scoring. James had already become one of the league’s most prolific scorers through unusual longevity, elite efficiency, and a scoring career that included stints with Cleveland, Miami, and the Lakers.
James later extended the record, while also becoming the first player to surpass 40,000 regular-season points. His 2023 achievement is sometimes confused with his separate 2023 milestone of passing Oscar Schmidt as basketball’s worldwide all-time leading scorer, which occurred later that year.