Mar 21, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) reacts to the win against the Miami Heat at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

Kevin Durant Reaches Huge Career Milestone

Originally posted on Stadium Rant | By Calvin Shaw | Last updated Mar 23, 2026 9:39 AM ET

Kevin Durant reached an important milestone in his 19th season in the NBA as his Houston Rockets picked up a comeback victory against the Miami Heat on March 21st. In front of a raucous Houston crowd, Durant pulled up for a corner three, passing the iconic Michael Jordan and cementing his name in the top five of the NBA all-time scoring list.

Durant had a great climb to reaching the top five, and as he said in his postgame press conference, “I got more to go…”. NBA fans look forward to seeing how many points he will score to end his amazing career.

From Top 10 To Top Five

At the start of the 2024/2025 NBA season, Durant was positioned eleventh and climbed past names such as Moses Malone, Shaquille O’Neal, and Carmelo Anthony to finish that season eighth all-time on the list.

Coming into the 2025/2026 NBA season, Durant is playing for his fifth team after a 2-year stint with the Phoenix Suns, where he climbed the ranks on the all-time scoring list.

On January 8th, to start the new year, Durant passed Wilt Chamberlain to become the seventh all-time on the list and has his eyes set on passing the Mavs great, Dirk Nowitzki.

On January 16th, he continued his climb as Durant passed his idol, Dirk Nowitzki, in a game against the New Orleans Pelicans, and a special video from his idol was shared during this milestone in his career.

In this short period between passing Dirk and Jordan, Durant scored 733 points to move his way up to fifth all-time on the scoring list.

Jordan may have been bumped from being in the top five, but he reached his point total playing under 1,100 games at 1,072 games played. Wilt Chamberlain is the only other player in the top 10 with less than 1,100 games played, at 1,045 games played.

Will Durant Reach The Top Three?

Kevin Durant said in his post-game interview following this milestone that he has more to do in his quest to reach number one on the all-time scoring list. That will be a tough hill to climb as LeBron keeps adding to the record.

I do believe Durant has the opportunity to become the second player in NBA history to reach 40,000 points, which will put him second on the all-time scoring list. However, he has other players currently in front of him to conquer before he looks too far ahead.

Kobe Bryant is currently sitting ahead of Durant, along with Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. As long as Durant remains healthy and can maintain a medium-to-high level of shooting to end his career, he has a chance to reach the 40k career point milestone. Will his heart still be in the game to achieve it, though?

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The End Of My Kevin Durant Rant

Kevin Durant will go down as one of the best scorers in NBA history, no matter how you feel about his move to the Golden State Warriors and head-scratching decision to leave Golden State. He is a two-time NBA Champion and 2-time Finals MVP winner with four scoring titles under his belt and surprisingly only one regular season MVP.

Kevin Durant is an all-time NBA player who has been ridiculed for things that were in his control, and some stuff that was completely out of his control. When he is eventually inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, I know he will provide us with an all-time great speech. He will also be remembered as arguably THE best scorer in NBA history.

This article first appeared on Stadium Rant and was syndicated with permission.

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