40 Absurd Facts About LeBron James’ 40,000 Career Points

LeBron James has officially scored 40,000 career NBA points.

It is an incredible, phenomenal, staggering number of points. It's an NBA record — every new bucket by James is, of course — and something we've never seen before from anyone in history.

While it's obvious that 40,000 is a metric ton of points, it can be hard to appreciate just how much scoring that is. How much is 40,000 of anything really?

Below are 40 absurd facts about LeBron's 40K points to help put this incredible 40,000-point feat into context.

1. 40,000 seconds is the length of 13.89 regulation NBA games.
2. 40,000 days is over 109 years.
3. 40,000 inches is the length of 11.11 back-to-back NFL football fields.
4. If you invested $500 in a savings account with 5% interest and kept adding $500 more every single year, it would take 32 entire years to hit $40,000.
5. 40,000 points is more than the combined efforts of the top 28 NBA scorers this entire season so far.
6. Add up every point scored by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Steph Curry, Jayson Tatum, Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, Tyrese Maxey, De'Aaron Fox, Trae Young, Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, DeMar DeRozan, Paolo Banchero, Karl-Anthony Towns, Pascal Siakam, Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Kuzma, Mikal Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr., Alperen Sengun, Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, and Brandon Ingram this season and you almost hit LeBron's 40K.
7. Luka Doncic leads the league at 34.5 PPG, 16th highest in NBA history. If he continues to score at exactly that pace for the entire rest of his career, it would still take him until 2036 to hit 40,000 points.
8. If Victor Wembanyama continued his current pace of shot blocks, it would take him 165 seasons to record 40,000 blocks.
9. 40,000 points is more points than Mel Daniels, Buddy Jeannette, Louie Dampier, Al Cervi, Bob Houbregs, Chuck Cooper, Maurice Stokes, Dino Radja, Sarunas Marciulionis, K.C. Jones, Jim Pollard, and Dick McGuire scored in their entire NBA careers combined.
10. Mel Daniels, Buddy Jeannette, Louie Dampier, Al Cervi, Bob Houbregs, Chuck Cooper, Maurice Stokes, Dino Radja, Sarunas Marciulionis, K.C. Jones, Jim Pollard, and Dick McGuire are all in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
11. LeBron's 40K points are as many as 12 Basketball Hall of Famers' entire careers combined.
12. 40,000 is also as many points as the combined efforts of Hall of Fame big men Bill Walton, Yao Ming, Ralph Sampson, Bill Bradley, and Dennis Rodman.
13. LeBron's 40K is more points than Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, combined.
14. LeBron has only led the NBA in scoring one (1) time.
15. He's led the NBA playoffs in scoring seven (7) times.
16. Counting the postseason too, LeBron has actually scored over 48,000 points in his NBA career.
17. If you took away all of LeBron's career 3s, he'd still rank fourth all time in NBA scoring, ahead of Michael Jordan.
18. If you took away all of LeBron's made free throws in his career, he'd still rank top 25 all time in NBA points, just ahead of Rick Barry and Jerry West.
19. If you took away all of LeBron's 3s and free throws in his career, he would still have over 18,000 points, more than Giannis Antetokounmpo and almost as many as Tracy McGrady.
20. At his current career rate of scoring, 35-year-old Steph Curry would need to play until he turns 48 to hit 40,000 points.
21. Steph Curry has over 3,600 career 3s, more than 600 ahead of every player in NBA history. To hit 40,000 points on just 3-pointers made alone, Curry would have to continue his current pace for 40 more seasons.
22. John Stockton finished his career with 15,806 assists, over 3,000 more than his closest competitor, a whopping 31% more than anyone in NBA history.
23. For Stockton to hit 40,000 assists, he would've needed to play 29 more NBA seasons at his career rate.
24. John Stockton would still be playing in the NBA.
25. … for another eight full seasons.
26. At his career rate, if he never retired or took a break, John Stockton would just finally be gearing up to pass thirty thousand (30,000) assists sometime next season.
27. LeBron's son Bronny is scoring 5.5 PPG as a freshman at USC. If Bronny matches that in the NBA next fall, then increases his PPG by two points a year in perpetuity, he would have to play 22 NBA seasons to catch LeBron's 40,000.
28. Bronny would be averaging 47.5 PPG that final record-breaking season.
29. LeBron will obviously be the youngest player in NBA history to score 40,000 points.
30. He was also the youngest in NBA history to score 39,000 points… and 38,000… and 37,000… and every other 1K multiple right down t0 1,000 points.
31. Kevin Durant entered the NBA in 2007. If Durant matched the NBA scoring leader in points every single season of his career so far, he would have 38,792 points, still short of LeBron's 40K.
32. If LeBron kept playing 528 more games but never scored another point past 40,000, he would still average 20 PPG for his career.
33. LeBron's 40,000 points are most in NBA history, but they're actually not the most in basketball history.
34. Brazil's Oscar Schmidt finished his career with 49,737 points in 29 years of professional basketball.
35. For LeBron to pass Schmidt's 49,737, he'd have to score at his current rate six more seasons and pass Schmidt's total at age 45.
36. Oscar Schmidt played professional ball from 1974 through 2003, retiring on May 26, 2003. LeBron James made his professional debut 157 days later on October 29, 2003.
37. If a brand new player entered the NBA in 157 days and scored exactly 20 points a game every game of his career playing 70 games a season, it would take him 29 seasons to hit 40,000 points.
38. A new 21-year old rookie would have to score 20 points every single game until he turned 50 to catch LeBron's 40K.
39. If that player starts scoring 20 a game immediately this fall, he would hit 40,000 points in 2053.
40. Of course… LeBron might still be playing basketball then anyway.