Dunks, three-pointers, plays invented out of nowhere, and, above all, an offensive instinct above the normal: this is what, in small part, represents the best scorers in history who hold the record for points in the NBA. Here are the updated standings.

NBA point record: the best scorers in history

Small premise: the ranking of the best in history is made up of data that refers only to the regular season. Therefore, all points scored during the playoffs are not counted. Below are the top five positions in the standings, with the NBA points record holder in first place.

• LeBron James: 38,390 points (28,103 average).
• Kareem Abdul Jabbar: 38,387 points (24,607 average).
• Karl Malone: 36,928 points (25.019 average)
• Kobe Bryant: 33,643 points (24,995 average).
• Michael Jordan: 32,292 points (30,123 average)

1. LeBron James: “King.” James is the holder of the NBA points record as well as the only player still active in this ranking. At 38, he rewrote the history of the most famous professional basketball league in the world, beating a record that had stood for many years. The four-time NBA champion, who has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and Los Angeles Lakers, surpassed Kareem Abdul Jabbar with a two-point jump shot against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2023.

2. Kareem Abdul Jabbar: He is the holder of the points record in the NBA, which equals the monstrous figure of 38,387. The former Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers center hit those numbers in 1,560 games with a scoring average of 24,607 points per game. Because he was 218 cm tall, he was also ranked third among the best rebounders and blockers.

3. Karl Malone: Nicknamed “the Postman,” characterized his career with an incredible consistency that led him to score many points every game. For a long time, he was considered the best power forward in the NBA, and his numbers confirm it: 36,928 points scored in 1476 games played. Despite this, he never won the ring.

4. Kobe Bryant: Kobe Bryant was raised playing basketball in Italy before becoming one of the world’s icons of basketball and sport in general. He is the NBA’s fourth all-time leading scorer. In his career, he scored 33,643 points while playing mainly as a shooting guard. Bryant dedicated his entire career to the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he won 5 NBA titles.

5. Michael Jordan: He is the athlete who embodies the essence of world basketball. “Air” Jordan is the basketball player who revolutionized this sport with an approach to basketball that had never been seen until his arrival. We are talking about the best scorer for average points per game in NBA history, both in the regular season (30.123 points per game) and in the playoffs (33.45 points). He closed his career with 32,292 points in 1072 games, and nothing prevents us from thinking that if he had played more, he would undoubtedly have put his name at the top of this ranking.

NBA point record in a game: whose is it?

It’s ok to score a lot during the season, but who scored the most NBA points in one game? The answer is Wilt Chamberlain, who with his Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points against the New York Knicks in a 1962 match. Immediately after him in this special ranking comes Kobe Bryant, who in 2006 scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. Michael Jordan, on the other hand, scored 69 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1990. Among active basketball players, however, the record belongs to Stephen Curry, who in 2021 allowed his team to win with 61 points scored in the challenge against the Portland Trail Blazers, who finished 137-122.