Kevin Durant continued to climb the NBA’s listing of profession scoring leaders, passing massive man Shaquille O’Neal for No. 8 with 22 factors within the Phoenix Suns’ 115-102 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday evening.
The 35-year-old Durant now has 28,610 profession factors. He’s handed a number of greats on the scoring listing this season, together with Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and Carmelo Anthony.
Durant, a 14-time All-Star, exhibits no indicators of slowing down. The 6-foot-11 ahead is scoring almost 28 factors per recreation in his seventeenth season, which is simply above his profession common.
“I’m grateful to be within the class with among the biggest,” Durant mentioned. “Everyone knows what Shaq meant to the sport of basketball. So to be up there with him is a serious, main honor in my view.”
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Durant will in all probability want at the least one other yr earlier than he hits No. 7 on the listing. That spot is occupied by Wilt Chamberlain, who had 31,419 profession factors.
The Suns performed a video message from O’Neal throughout a timeout on Wednesday, congratulating Durant on passing him.
“You understand it doesn’t cease right here,” O’Neal mentioned.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is the one participant in NBA historical past to attain at the least 40,000 factors, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar earlier this season. Karl Malone occupies the No. 3 spot, adopted by Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Chamberlain.
Durant is at the moment No. 10 on the listing when counting factors scored in each the NBA and American Basketball Affiliation, which operated from 1967 to 1976.