NBA
All-time NBA scoring list: James Harden passes Dominique Wilkins for No. 15
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated9 hours ago on January 17, 2025
James Harden continues to cement his legacy as one of the best players to ever grace a basketball court. The Clippers veteran dropped 21 points this Wednesday and climbed up the all-time scoring ranks, over legend Dominique Wilkins, to place himself in the list’s 15th position.
This occurred during Los Angeles’ 126-67 blowout win over Brooklyn, which ended up becoming the franchise’s largest margin of victory. The Beard passed the Hawks legend who has a total of 26,668 career points in his Hall of Famer career.
Harden went 6-for-10 overall and 3-for-5 on 3-pointers, along with 6 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals. If the point guard continues on this path, he should be able to pass Oscar Robertson’s 26,710 mark, as well as Hakeem Olajuwon’s 26,946 by the end of this current 2024-25 campaign.
After the game, the 35-year-old admitted that he’s still not able to process these records. “We’ll figure that out when it’s all done,” he said on Wednesday. “But right now, it’s just I got to keep going. I got to keep getting closer and breaking more records.”
He then added: “When it’s all said and done, which I’ll have a lot of time after, I can sit back and realize what I actually accomplished in my life. But for now, I’m in the moment. I just keep going.”
This impressive victory in Los Angeles also meant the worst loss in Nets’ history, which used to be a 52-point defeat to Houston back in 1978. “So, we just had to have a professional mindset coming out in that third quarter and we did that,” coach Tyronn Lue said postgame. “Our guys were able to get some rest going into tomorrow to a back-to-back.”
With Kawhi Leonard playing only his fourth match of the season so far, the Clippers will continue to be cautious with his health over this upcoming stretch. Lue revealed that the medical staff are putting together a guide for his recovery, which is why he didn’t play on Thursday at Portland.
“We’ve played, I think, pretty much the top-two hardest schedule in the league so far this year. It just adds to it,” the L.A. coach explained. “So, we just got to take it game by game. Can’t fall victim to the schedule. It’s out of the NBA’s hands what happened to our city and so we understand that. So, we just got to lock in.”
