Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant swished a 3-pointer with 7:57 left in the third quarter on Friday night to move into seventh place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Durant’s trey allowed him to pass legendary Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) during the contest against the host Portland Trail Blazers.
The 3-pointer gave him 17 points on the night and lifted Durant’s career point total to 31,422.
Durant, who had 31,405 points entering the contest, tied Chamberlain’s total with 1:53 left in the second quarter when he got the bounce on a free-throw line turnaround jumper. Houston led 56-55 at halftime.
Durant passed Chamberlain in his 1,156th career game. Chamberlain played 1,045 games during a 14-year career with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers from 1959-73.
Next up for Durant to chase down is sixth-place Dirk Nowitzki (31,560), the former Dallas Mavericks star. Durant is on pace to pass Nowitzki later this month, barring injury.
LeBron James is the leading scorer in NBA history and he had 42,575 career points entering the Los Angeles Lakers’ game on Friday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) is the second-leading scorer in NBA history. Karl Malone (36,928), Kobe Bryant (33,643) and Michael Jordan (32,292) round out the top five.
