LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most made field goals in NBA history

DENVER — LeBron James has already scored more points than any player in NBA history. Now, he’s seen more field goal attempts pass through the rim than anyone in his profession.

James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with a league-record 15,838th made basket, with the record-breaking field goal coming on a fadeaway jumper in the closing seconds of the first quarter Thursday against the Denver Nuggets. James entered the game needing three made baskets to pass the former Laker great.

“LeBron’s greatest hits, he just keeps adding to them,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said pregame. “He just plays and plays and plays. And the greatest hits are just — he’s got a hell of a catalog.”

James’ first hoop came on a cutting layup in traffic in the first quarter. He followed it up with a two-handed dunk off a Luka Dončić pass to tie the record. The record-breaking hoop came on one of his signature shots — a baseline turnaround jumper over Denver’s Zeke Nnaji.

James previously bested Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record in 2023. He entered Thursday with 43,111 career regular-season points, nearly 5,000 more than Abdul-Jabbar’s 38,387.

In addition to scoring, James is the NBA’s all-time leader in minutes and field goal attempts. His 23 seasons are the most anyone has played. He’s also fourth all-time in assists and sixth all-time in steals.

James needs to play seven more games to break Robert Parish’s record of 1,611 regular-season games.

This story will be updated.