Who Is the All Time NBA Scoring Leader?

We all know that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. But did you know that he is also the all-time NBA scoring leader? That’s right, MJ holds the record for most points scored in a career, with a whopping 32,292!

NBA Scoring Leaders

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men’s professional basketball league in North America, composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). It is widely considered to be the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world. NBA scoring leaders are the annual leaders in points scored in the NBA.

All Time Scoring Leaders

The all time NBA scoring leaders are a who’s who of basketball greats. From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to LeBron James, the list features some of the game’s greatest players. While scoring is only one aspect of basketball, it is still an important part of the game. These players have all excelled at putting points on the board, and their accomplishments are deserving of recognition.

Abdul-Jabbar, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, is the all time NBA scoring leader with 38,387 points. He is followed by Karl Malone (36,928), LeBron James (34,241), Kobe Bryant (33,643), and Michael Jordan (32,292). These are the only players in NBA history to score more than 30,000 points.

Each of these players has had a Hall of Fame caliber career. Abdul-Jabbar and Jordan are widely considered to be two of the greatest players in NBA history. Malone and James are both considered to be among the best power forwards ever to play the game. And Bryant is considered one of the best shooting guards of all time.

These players have all left their mark on the game of basketball. Their scoring exploits will be remembered for years to come.

Most Points in a Season

1. Wilt Chamberlain – 100 points

In 1962, Chamberlain set the record for the most points in an NBA game when he scored 100 against the New York Knicks. He averaged a staggering 50.4 points per game that season, which is still the highest average in NBA history.

2. Michael Jordan – 3,041 points

MJ is second on the list of most points in a season, but he accomplished the feat in only his second year in the league! In 1986, MJ averaged a solid 30.1 points per game and helped lead his Chicago Bulls to the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.

3. Kobe Bryant – 2,832 points

Kobe had one of the most impressive scoring seasons in NBA history in 2005-06 when he averaged an unbelievable 35.4 points per game. That year, Kobe led the Lakers to an impressive 56-26 record and a trip to the NBA Finals.

Most Points in a Game

The most points scored in an NBA game is 100, achieved by Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006.

In that game, Bryant scored 40 field goals and made 20 of his 27 free throws for a total of 100 points. It was the fifth time in NBA history that a player had reached the century mark, and Bryant became just the second player to do it in regulation time (Wilt Chamberlain was the first, achieving the feat four times).

Active NBA Scoring Leaders

There are many great scorers in the NBA today, but who is the all time leader? That would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers for most of his career. Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points. He is also the leading scorer in Lakers history.

LeBron James

As of the 2019-2020 season, LeBron James is the active NBA scoring leader with 34,087 total points. He is also 2nd on the all-time scoring list, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Other active players near the top of the list include Carmelo Anthony (6th), Dirk Nowitzki (7th), and Dwyane Wade (9th).

Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant, who played his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. He retired in 2016 after scoring 33,643 points, which is over 1,300 points more than second-place Karl Malone.

Bryant didn’t just score a lot of points—he did it efficiently. His career points per game average of 25.0 is fifth all time, and his career field goal percentage of 45.4 percent is 20th. He was also a good free throw shooter, making 83.7 percent of his attempts.

Bryant was a prolific scorer throughout his career, averaging over 25 points per game in 15 of his 20 seasons. He scored a career-high 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors in 2006 and retired as the Lakers’ all-time leading scorer.

Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for the University of Texas, and was selected as the second overall pick by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 2007 NBA draft. He played nine seasons in Oklahoma City before signing with Golden State in 2016, winning back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.

Durant has won two NBA Finals MVP Awards, an NBA Most Valuable Player Award, two NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Awards, four NBA All-Star Games, and two Olympic gold medals. He has also been selected to eight All-NBA Teams and nine NBA All-Defensive Teams.

In 2013–14, Durant led the league in scoring with 32.0 points per game, becoming just the sixth player in NBA history to average at least 30 points per game for five consecutive seasons. He is also one of only three players in history to win an NBA scoring title while averaging 30 or more points per game in every game of the season.

Retired NBA Scoring Leaders

Although there have been many great scorers in NBA history, only a handful of those players have been able to retire as the league’s all-time scoring leader. Players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and LeBron James were able to achieve this feat, and their names will go down in history.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. in New York City, the only child of Cora Lillian (née Kisselburgh), a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a transit police officer and jazz musician. He accrued 21,840 points over his 20-season career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. Upon his retirement from professional basketball in 1989, he scored the most points of any player in NBA history, a record that remains unbroken as of 2019. He also holds the all-time records for tallest player to score (7 ft 2 in) and play (7 ft 0 in).

Karl Malone

Karl Malone is an American retired professional basketball player. Malone played the power forward position and spent his first 18 seasons (1985–2003) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Utah Jazz. He was a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (1997, 1999), a 14-time NBA All-Star, and an 11-time member of the All-NBA first team. His 36,928 career points scored rank second all time in NBA history, and his 14,968 career rebounds are third. He holds the NBA records for most free throws attempted and made, in addition to being the second player ever to average 30 points and 10 rebounds per game in an NBA season. Malone also competed with the United States national team as a member of the 1992 “Dream Team”, which won the Olympic gold medal at Barcelona.

After ending his playing career with 28,596 points (fourth all time), Malone was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. He is considered one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is the NBA’s all-time scoring leader. He netted a total of 32,292 points in his illustrious career. Jordan played in 1,072 games over the course of his 15 seasons in the league. His scoring average per game was an astonishing 30.1 points. Jordan’s nearest competitor is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who holds the record for most points scored in a career with 38,387.

Born in 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, Michael Jeffrey Jordan was the fourth child of James and Deloris Jordan. James Jordan was a mechanic, and Deloris worked in banking. The family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when Michael was a toddler. Michael Jordan began playing basketball when he was still in elementary school. By the time he attended Laney High School, he had grown to 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 meters). During his senior year at Laney High, he averaged a whopping 30.4 points per game.