On March 5, Beijing time, the Lakers played against the Pelicans at home, and Lakers superstar LeBron James unlocked the milestone of 50,000 points (regular season + playoff career), becoming the first player in NBA history to do so. Before this game, James' regular season career + playoff career total was 49,999 points, just 1 point away from completing the feat. James unlocked that milestone in the first quarter of the game.

Before unlocking this milestone, James was already the all-time leader in scoring, both in the regular season and in the playoffs. He broke Jordan's 19-year-old playoff record for total points scored on May 26, 2017, and on February 8, 2023, he broke Abdul-Jabbar's 39-year-old record for total points scored in the regular season. The following is the NBA's official list of all the positions of James' career goals, blue for regular season goals and red dots for playoff goals.

After James, the closest to 50,000 is Abdul-Jabbar (44,149), with only him and Karl Malone (41,689) reaching at least 40,000. Among active players, the second-highest total score is Durant, who has 30,206 points in his regular season career and 4,985 points in his playoff career, with a total of 35,191 points, nearly 15,000 points less than James.

The Associated Press also gave a key timeline of James' career (regular season + playoff total) -

Point 1: October 30, 2003, Cavaliers vs. Kings

10,000th point: December 24, 2007, Cavaliers vs. Warriors

20,000 points: December 28, 2011, Heat vs. Celtics

30,000 points: Nov. 3, 2015, Cavaliers vs. 76ers

No. 40,000 points: December 5, 2019, Lakers vs. Jazz

Before this game against the Pelicans, James was already quite hot. In 11 games in February, he averaged 29.3 points per game while shooting 55.5 percent from the field and 44.3 percent from three-point range, and was ultimately voted Western Conference Player of the Month. This is the 41st time in James' career Player of the Month award, the first time in five years that he has won the accolade, and he also surpassed Karl Malone (37) to become the oldest player of the month in history.

It's also James' highest scoring average in a single month since January 2022 (33.8 points per game) and his best shooting since March 2024 (57.1% shooting from the field and 45.5% from three-point range).

In February, James also became the first player in NBA history to score 40+ points multiple times at the age of at least 40. Aside from James, Jordan is the only player who can score 40+ points in a single game at the age of 40, having scored 43 points in that game on February 22, 2003.

There are two words that will forever be associated with James' legend – consistency and staying power, which are key to his ability to climb to the unprecedented 50,000-point scoring milestone.

Consistency: James averaged 24.8 points per game ahead of this game, just 0.2 points shy of averaging at least 25 points per game for 21 consecutive seasons. Durant (who is expected to reach 17 seasons) is the only other player in NBA history to reach more than 12 such seasons.

In terms of staying power: Eleven players have played 20 seasons in the NBA, seven have played 21 seasons, and only two – James and Carter have played 22 seasons.

In his 22nd season, James still maintains an All-Star level, ranking 12th in the league in scoring and 5th in assists. He continues to push the limits of time and push the records he has already set even higher for future generations of players to catch up.

Prior to this game, James ranked first all-time in regular season + playoff total shots (18,288), second behind Karl Malone in total free throw field goals (10,418), and fifth all-time in total three-point goals behind Curry, Harden, Ray Allen and Klay Thompson.

On top of that, there's unprecedented territory for him to explore — no player has ever played 23 seasons in NBA history.

James' career has been filled with unprecedented moments. And today in Los Angeles, he made new history by becoming the only member of the 50,000 points club.