Kevin Durant Just Beat Michael Jordan's Record — But He Isn’t No. 1 Yet
Kevin Durant achieved a major career milestone this past weekend, besting Michael Jordan in the process.
On Saturday night, Durant helped lead the Houston Rockets to a 123-122 win against the Miami Heat, coming into the game just 25 points shy of Michael Jordan’s No. 5 slot on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
With less than four minutes left in the game, Durant had racked up 24 points, before sinking a 3-pointer at the 3:23 mark. With that, his career total went to 32,294 points, making history as he beat Jordan’s own career total of 32,292 by two points.
NBA All-Time Scoring List
With Jordan now in his rearview, there are still four other names ahead of Durant if he wants to be #1. Getting there, howevever, could prove difficult.
In the fourth, third, second and first spots are Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James, respectively. James, of course, is still adding to his No. 1 tally as he continues to play, currently sitting at 43,034 points.
With Durant averaging in the mid-to-high 20s ppg a season, per NBA.com, he could surpass Bryant’s record of 33,643 next season and Malone’s 36,928 record the one after that.
He’d possibly need four more seasons, keeping that 25 ppg record to pass Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387 point record, something even he wasn’t sure he could do when speaking with reporter Leigh Ellis.
“God damn. I don’t know if I could get 25 a game for 270 more games, brother. I never wanna say never, but those dudes set the bar so high,” Durant said at the time, as Ellis noted he didn’t think Durant could ever catch up to James. “I think about the top three or four, you gotta play at least 20 years in the league to even reach that, and still be at that level for 15 or 20 years.”
“I’m looking at it more so like that. Play long, play 20-plus years in the league, and see where you end up,” he added. “If I end up there, it’s cool; if not, I just wanna be around and be in the league...we'll see what happens.”
Durant on Breaking Jordan's Record
On Sunday, Durant joined his agent Rich Kleiman for an episode of Boardroom Talks, where the two talked about beating Jordan’s record and MJ's overall legacy in the NBA.
“He’s not the leader in points, but his imprint, his impact on the game is so big, it’s always historical even coming close to what he’s done on the basketball court, in any type of form,” said Durant. “To be close in points, it’s a true honor.”
“You don’t really play the game to accomplish things like that. Don’t get me wrong, the stuff is cool along the way. It’s cool to have these conversations about what I've done on the floor. It’s cool because it speaks to how long I’ve been around,” he continued. “At the end of the day, it’s just another milestone I’ve hit and we’ll see where I end up. Passing guys, it’s just always cool to be in the same conversation as them more than anything.”
He also said that, when it comes to a legend like Jordan, “it’s bigger than the stats.”
“MJ is just bigger than the game. No matter who passes him in stats...even if you were to pass him in anything, just his impact on the sport and culture in general, is too big," he added. “He hovers above the sport. It’s bigger than the stats with MJ, I don’t think he has an equal in any industry.”