LeBron James has been given a new nickname by the LA Lakers after achieving a stunning feat that Michael Jordan never managed during his legendary career.
James entered the Lakers' game against the New Orleans Pelicans on the brink of making NBA history.
And he reached the milestone with his first shot of Tuesday's match, connecting on a 3-pointer from the left wing off a Luka Doncic feed to put the Lakers up 13-6.
In doing so, he became NBA's first 50,000-point player.
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Not even NBA legend Jordan reached that milestone, having scored 32,292 points during his iconic career.
After etching himself into the history books, the Lakers gave James a fitting, new nickname.
On X, the team wrote: "Mr. 50k."
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In an on-court interview after the clash at the Crypto.com Arena, James gave his immediate reaction to reaching 50,000 career points.
"It's a hell of a lot of points, and I'm super blessed to be able to put that many points up in the best league in the world with the best players in the world over my career." he told Spectrum SportsNet. "It's pretty special."
Doncic hailed James' feat and suggested his esteemed colleague could reach 70,000 points.
"It's amazing," he said of James. "Watching him do this stuff at this age, it's just unbelievable. Like, 50K points, I can't even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70K, you never know."
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James, 40, added: "Just not falling out of love with the process. Continuing to fall in love with the process, that's the hardest thing, every single year. You know it's going to be a long season, it's 82 games, 41 of them are on the road. It's a lot of travel. And as you get older, it affects you even differently. If you have a family, it affects you even differently. So, the process. Trying not to fall out of love with the process is the hardest thing."
Topics: Lebron James, Basketball, NBA, Michael Jordan
Nasir Jabbar