Kobe Bryant makes history, again
It was a shot we have seen hundreds of times. In the early moments of the third quarter of the Lakers’ loss to the Nuggets on Thursday 11 November, Kobe Bryant elevated and hit one of
his trademark fadeaway jumpers. While we have become accustomed to seeing this over his stellar 15-year career, last night’s jumper carried with it some historical significance.
The jumper gave him 17 points on the night and 26,000 for his career, as he became the youngest player in NBA history to reach this mark, beating out Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Bryant was 32 years and 80 days old while Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar were 32 years, 114 days and 33 years, 331 days, respectively, when they reached 26,000 career points.
Bryant became the 12th player in league history to reach the mark, doing so over 1,030 games.
But this is nothing new for Bryant, who became the youngest player to reach 25,000 points last season. He is also the youngest to reach the thousands mark from 16,000 to 20,000 and from
23,000 to 26,000.
Bryant finished with 34 points last night, giving him 26,017 career points.
Last year, Bryant passed Jerry West as the Lakers all-time scoring leader. West scored 25,192 career points for the Lakers over 14 years with the team.
Bryant also holds the franchise records for most points scored in the play-offs (5,052), in a single game (81), in a half (55), and in a quarter (30). He is also the only player in NBA
history to score at least 600 points in the play-offs for three consecutive seasons.
The Lakers enter the season looking for their second three-peat in the last 12 years, having won three straight championship beginning with the 2000-01 season. They had won their first
eight games of the season before dropping last night’s contest to the Nuggets.
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