With a 3-pointer against the Miami Heat on Saturday, Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant passed Michael Jordan with point No. 32,393 to move into the top five on the NBA career points leaderboard.
Durant already passed Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) and Dirk Nowitzki (31,560) this season. The only players he now trails are Kobe Bryant (33,643), Karl Malone (36,928), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and LeBron James (43,229).
Durant, who has called Jordan the greatest player in NBA history in previous interviews, told The Athletic that Jordan “has always been my inspiration.”
“He was always unstoppable, but when he became a midrange maestro, you never knew how he would attack you,” Durant said. “You never knew what MJ was going to do. He scared defenders every night, and I wanted to put that same kind of fear in the defender who’s guarding me.”
Durant’s consistency and efficiency have long been hallmarks of his scoring ability. The 37-year-old has averaged at least 25 points per game in 17 of his 18 NBA seasons, and he has shot 50 percent or better from the field in each of his last 13 seasons.
Since the Seattle Supersonics selected him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, Durant has maintained his spot as one of the most unstoppable scorers in the league by leveraging his slender, 6-foot-11 frame and superior shot-making from all three levels on the floor. Durant was one of the first players in NBA history at that height who possessed the agility and skill to do most of his damage as an isolation scorer on the perimeter. Durant won scoring titles in four of his first seven seasons as a pro and was named the league’s MVP in 2014.
Feeling the pressure to add NBA championships to his résumé, Durant infamously left the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016 to join Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and a Golden State Warriors team that won 73 games the previous season.
Durant went on to win two NBA titles and two finals MVP awards in his first two seasons with the Warriors, starring alongside Curry for one of the most dominant teams in league history. In his final season with Golden State, he missed much of the playoffs with a calf injury, returned with the Warriors trailing 3-1 in the finals against the Toronto Raptors, and ultimately suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon in that Game 5.
After missing the entire 2019-20 season due to the injury, Durant returned and has continued to be one of the top scorers in the league during stops with the Brooklyn Nets, Phoenix Suns and Rockets. This season, Durant has maintained his All-Star form while helping lead Houston to a 42-27 record entering Saturday and likely playoff berth. He entered this game averaging 25.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game for a team that’s competing for homecourt advantage in the West, all while shooting 52 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3 and 89 percent from the free-throw line.
Durant’s unprecedented production after recovering from one of the most devastating injuries in sports has made him an inspiration to other stars recovering from Achilles injuries. Jayson Tatum and Dejounte Murray are two recent examples of All-Star-caliber players who have returned to the court and performed at a high level after rupturing an Achilles tendon.
Next for Durant’s scoring chase will be fourth-place Bryant. Based on how Durant has played for the Rockets, he is on track to overtake Bryant sometime next season.