LeBron has 38416 points in just the games where he has scored 20 or more! Kareem scored 38387 points in his entire career. LeBron has 1313 games with 20 points or more. That is more games with 20 points than total games in the careers of Hall of Famers Scottie Pippen (1178), Patrick Ewing (1183), Steve Nash (1217), Pau Gasol (1226), Hakeem Olajuwon (1238), Julius Erving (1243), Carmelo Anthony (1260), Ray Allen (1300), Elvin Hayes (1303), and many others.

Among active players, Steph Curry (1065), Kevin Durant (1179), James Harden (1202), DeMar DeRozan (1248), and Russell Westbrook (1293) have currently played less than this total as of February 28th, 2026.

Kareem held the scoring record for 39 years. He also previously held the record for most 20 point games with 1122 before being surpassed by Karl Malone’s 1134, and later being surpassed by LeBron.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nba-most-games-with-20-points

LeBron originally set this record on February 25th, 2026 when LeBron recorded his 1312th 20-point game. Scoring 38,394 points in just the games where he had 20 points or more.

phd2k1 | Suns

320 | 6 hours ago

Yes but what if you removed every game where he was out due to injury or illness?

MVPRondo | Cabo Verde

95 | 6 hours ago

Good one, but what if you just removed the ball? Now what? Does he still lead the league in baskets? Jordan would still find other ways to score.

Ferngulley26

9 | 5 hours ago

New Barry Bonds without a bat video incoming

DirectWheel637

5 | 4 hours ago

That’s actually a crazy stat when you think about it - dude’s been so consistently dominant for over two decades.

FormerFakeguy

-8 | 4 hours ago

Or every game where he flopped?

Ayjel89

173 | 6 hours ago

what if you added kurt angle to the mix

Efficient-Swimmer794 | Rockets

57 | 6 hours ago

That spells doom for LeBron at Sacrifice

DrCarm3x

13 | 5 hours ago

Senõr Bron, the numbers don’t lie

Ayjel89

1 | 6 hours ago

you the real mvp

jhorch69 | Bulls

27 | 6 hours ago

Your chances drastic go down

JayQuips | Lakers

4 | 5 hours ago

Prepare to get hurt and mangled like Kurt Angle, rookie year

SeaweedWestern9719

3 | 4 hours ago

His chances of scoring drastic go down

passdawax

2 | 4 hours ago

Viva LeBron. He lies, he cheats, he steals!

Unlucky_Brother_1948

2 | 3 hours ago

I’m a man who loves to play with boys!

browntown20 | Bulls

1 | an hour ago

classic

persianx6_

1 | 3 hours ago

HES FAT

TonyIsMoney

1 | an hour ago

Then he sucks

Ayjel89

153 | 6 hours ago

what if you removed every game he scored less than 25 points

Dependent-Two7571

126 | 6 hours ago

Considering this would be a lot more impressive, he probably wouldve said this if it was true lol

Ayjel89

26 | 6 hours ago

Fair, fair

what if you removed every game where he scored less than 21 points

Open_Photograph2818

65 | 6 hours ago

Well considering he leads Kareem by about 40 points in this scenario and I’m assuming he’s had a few 21 point games I would say no

Ayjel89

6 | 6 hours ago

Doh

ThinkSoftware | Hawks

17 | 6 hours ago

But if you remove every game where he scored less than 19 points it still applies

bigboybeeperbelly | Spurs

10 | 5 hours ago

What about the games where he scored a prime number of points

itgoesdownandup

6 | 5 hours ago

If we removed every game he scored 1,759 points he would still have the record.

v399 | Lakers

2 | 5 hours ago

How does that work? I thought OP only calculated less than 20 points.

EmbarrassedMeringue9

2 | 4 hours ago

Let’s do a binary search

prettymuthafucka | Wizards

1 | 5 hours ago

It’s still impressive and I’m no LeBron fan

A_Confused_Cocoon | NBA

1 | 3 hours ago

Tf? This is still impressive.

kash96 | NBA

9 | 5 hours ago

that leaves him at 31,161 points, good enough for 9th all time

Ayjel89

9 | 4 hours ago

1.) I appreciate you going through the work to figure this out even if I was an asshole.

2.) That’s wild lol

CluelessTennisBall | Trail Blazers

7 | 6 hours ago

Or what if you remove every game he scored points?

Ayjel89

5 | 5 hours ago

that’s why jordan’s my goat

DoubleTTB22 | Hornets

3 | 5 hours ago

You can click on the link in the OP and change the point threshold to whatever you want.

Ayjel89

1 | 4 hours ago

I appreciate you being real even if I was being fake.

Pndrizzy

2 | 5 hours ago

He barely has it for 20 points by 29 points. 8 24 point games would make that impossible, and I’m sure Bron has scored 24 points more than 8 times

--Rick--Astley--

69 | 6 hours ago

If you remove every game he played he wouldn’t have played any games.

moby323 | 76ers

16 | 6 hours ago

This stat is exactly why Jordan is my goat.

leokos14

2 | 6 hours ago

If you remove every game he scored in he wouldn’t have any points too!

awkone

1 | 5 hours ago

Thanks, magic!

HenrikCrown | Pelicans

67 | 6 hours ago

LeBron’s Barry Bonds “if you took his bat away, he’s still the OBP king” stat

babysamissimasybab | Pacers

16 | 6 hours ago

What if you gave LeBron a bat? Or even better, a bat?

TheCrookedKnight | 76ers

7 | 6 hours ago

He would get rabies

tornait-hashu | Supersonics

1 | an hour ago

Manu Ginobli would never

AnotherStatsGuy | Pelicans

3 | 5 hours ago

It always bugs me that the simulation was inly run once.

Run it a 100 times.

Captgouda24

3 | 4 hours ago

The people demand bootstrap standard errors!

Few_Emotion_4795 | Magic

1 | 6 hours ago

What if you took his Clear away?

justsomeguy254 | Trail Blazers

2 | 6 hours ago

What if you took his Cre… I’m not gonna finish that sentence.

kkpq

31 | 5 hours ago

If you take away Wayne Gretzky’s 1 point games, he’s still almost 600 points ahead of 2nd place.

If you take away his 1 and 2 point games, he’d still be 7th all-time in NHL scoring.

interested_commenter | Thunder

11 | 4 hours ago

Now that’s an insane stat. A hat trick is a far higher bar than a 20 point game.

dead_monster | Pistons

12 | 4 hours ago

You get a point per assist so not necessarily a hat trick. Could be 1 goal 2 assists, etc.

Docile_Penguin33

6 | 3 hours ago

If Wayne Gretzky never scored a goal, he’d still be the all-time points leader.

Mammoth_Two7297

2 | 39 minutes ago

This has always been my all time favorite sport stat. It did SLIGHTLY lose the coolness when you also mentioned that he was the all-time goal scorer and could take all those away to really show the point. But still awesome.

samhit_n | Lakers

23 | 6 hours ago

I’m happy I got to see LeBron break the record. I doubt anyone else will ever break it in my lifetime.

Flagg entered the NBA at a younger age, but he will have to average like 28 PPG until almost 2050 to break the record.

Relative_Apricot5032

2 | an hour ago

LeBron also has an absurd lead in career playoff points. Flagg would need at least 10 finals runs to even hope of matching that

doshegotabootyshedo | Mavericks

1 | 4 hours ago

I think this would be good for the NBA

J3ezyTheSnowman | Timberwolves

12 | 6 hours ago

I wonder what percentage of this subreddit has a Lakers flair (I know you don’t I just randombly thought about it since LeBron, I actually fuck with the Hornets, minus Miles Bridges)

[deleted]

6 | 6 hours ago

[deleted]

Theunmedicated

13 | 6 hours ago

Biggest markets in the NBA no shit haha

soyboysnowflake | Nuggets

1 | 4 hours ago

over 60-70%

Why not just say over 60%?

moby323 | 76ers

12 | 6 hours ago

Crazy

inshamblesx | Rockets

8 | 6 hours ago

imagine thinking lebron ain’t the goat in 2026

GMoney_McSwag | Bulls

-1 | 4 hours ago

Okay, now what?

SirJoeffer | 76ers

8 | 6 hours ago

Really not that impressive considering he barely makes a list when you remove every game he scores more than 15

RufiosBrotherKev | Timberwolves

8 | 4 hours ago

if you remove every game where he scored less than 61 points, hed only have 61 points all time. lebum

SirJoeffer | 76ers

2 | 4 hours ago

Three times less than Jordan

But this guy is some people’s GOAT smh my damn head

Dutch_Sorcery

3 | 6 hours ago

What if you remove every game where he scored more than 20 points?

Fast-Coast-3456

4 | 6 hours ago

If you remove half of his championships he would still have infinite times more championships than Harden.

mentyaf

3 | 6 hours ago

If you remove every point scored but added back in every other point scored and multiplied it by 2 he would be the leading scorer

AstuteCouch87 | Lakers

3 | 5 hours ago

OK. But what if you removed every game he played? Then what liberals?

Competitive_Gear_989

1 | 6 hours ago

Yea this is a no brainier, it’s like saying if you remove every game where John Stockton had less than 5 assists he’d still be the number 1 assists leader, yea he’s super consistent and needs that level to accomplish that.

bubbasnub | Magic

1 | 5 hours ago

Insanity

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

1 | 5 hours ago

If you remove every speeding ticket of 15MPH over or less from my driving record, I’d still have a generational number of 25MPH+ over tickets.

(Don’t worry, these tickets are all really old. Was stupid as shit as a kid. My brain has developed.)

joomla00

1 | 4 hours ago

Is lebron still the leading scorer if we included college points for when it was required?

DoubleTTB22 | Hornets

1 | 4 hours ago

The male college record for points is 3667 by Pete Maravich. And no one is even within 4000 points of LeBron’s NBA record currently.

joomla00

1 | 4 hours ago

You’re right, lebron would still be tops

Vitex1988 | Thunder

1 | 3 hours ago

if you removed every game Shai has played since november 1st 2024 where he scored less than 20 points, nothing would happen

beatrailblazer | Trail Blazers

1 | 2 hours ago

This doesn’t remotely surprise me, nor should it surprise anyone else.

Did you know if you remove his last 365 days worth of games, he’d still be the all-time points leader? Like okay?

Charming_Dish5971

1 | an hour ago

Wow

axilmar

1 | 28 minutes ago

Who cares…longevity stats are about endurance and body/health management, not how good one is.

Howtodopullups

0 | 6 hours ago

Goat.

Fit-Setting9033

-2 | 6 hours ago

Take this ESPN ocho-ass stat down

YallRedditForThis | Bulls

-2 | 5 hours ago

and Michael Jordan could return to the NBA today. Go scoreless for 128 games and still have a higher PPG than LeBron. There’s levels to this shit.

SnooCompliments9907

-2 | 5 hours ago

Holy cherry pick

Kyro_Official_ | Raptors

3 | 4 hours ago

I dont really see how less than 20 points is a cherry pick. 20 is a pretty normal number to use for these types of stat posts.

SnooCompliments9907

-1 | 3 hours ago

These type of stat posts are an obscure scenario.

hype jobs

Throwthisawayagainst

-5 | 6 hours ago

Whats also funny is that if you removed the 3 years that LeBron was allowed to be in the league that Kareem wasn’t (Kareem had to be 4 years removed from HS before going pro so ages 18-21), Kareem would still be the all time scoring leader, whats even crazier is that if Kareem was allowed to play those years he could average less then 20 a game and still be the scoring leader. Karl Malone also out paced LeBron as well.

DakoftheDead

-1 | 6 hours ago

Kareem is def better than Jordan. Not better than LBJ though.

Throwthisawayagainst

-2 | 6 hours ago

I’m just saying that this is oddly never talked about, i’m not making a goat case here. Like people omit that Kareem, a guy who is easily the goat college player literally wasn’t allowed to be in the league until he was 22, but simply comparing age to age he outpaced James pretty significantly because he didn’t load manage in his career.

icebucket22

-3 | 6 hours ago

Dude, Brons been in the league for 62 years. This isn’t the flex you think it is.

UraniumDisulfide | Lakers

9 | 5 hours ago

Why don’t other players stay in the league for 62 years? Are they stupid?

If you removed every game where LeBron scored less than 20 points he would still be the all-time scoring leader!