Kevin Durant continued to climb the NBA’s record of profession scoring leaders, passing large man Shaquille O’Neal for No. 8 with 22 factors within the Phoenix Suns’ 115-102 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday evening.
The 35-year-old Durant now has 28,610 profession factors. He’s handed a number of greats on the scoring record this season, together with Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and Carmelo Anthony.
Durant, a 14-time All-Star, exhibits no indicators of slowing down. The 6-foot-11 ahead is scoring practically 28 factors per sport in his seventeenth season, which is simply above his profession common.
“I’m grateful to be in the category with some of the greatest,” Durant mentioned. “We all know what Shaq meant to the game of basketball. So to be up there with him is a major, major honor in my opinion.”
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Durant will most likely want not less than one other yr earlier than he hits No. 7 on the record. That spot is occupied by Wilt Chamberlain, who had 31,419 profession factors.
The Suns performed a video message from O’Neal throughout a timeout on Wednesday, congratulating Durant on passing him.
“You know it doesn’t stop here,” O’Neal mentioned.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is the one participant in NBA historical past to attain not less than 40,000 factors, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar earlier this season. Karl Malone occupies the No. 3 spot, adopted by Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Chamberlain.
Durant is presently No. 10 on the record when counting factors scored in each the NBA and American Basketball Association, which operated from 1967 to 1976.