LeBron James is in the midst of his most prolific scoring season in more than a decade, as he is currently averaging 29.1 points per game. Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James passes Kareem for most combined points in NBA history

By Jordan Wolf | Last updated 2/12/22

LeBron James finally made it to the summit of a mountain he's been climbing for nearly two decades.

James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most points in NBA history between the regular season and playoffs on Saturday night, scoring his 44,150th point midway through the third quarter in the Lakers' game against the Warriors.

The 37-year-old James -- who still trails Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time regular season scoring leaderboard -- entered the night 18 points back of the record. He tied Abdul-Jabbar in the first half, but came out slowly to start the third quarter.

Then, with just over seven minutes left in the period, the Lakers set up in their half court offense. Anthony Davis held the ball at the top of the key, then nonchalantly passed it to James, who got a screen from Russell Westbrook. James pulled up and buried it to give him sole possession of the all-time mark.

LeBron James has now scored more points than any other player in league history between the regular season and playoffs combined. The record-setting bucket: pic.twitter.com/o43WjumoPP
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 13, 2022

Entering Saturday, James had scored 36,500 points in the regular season and 7,631 in the playoffs. He is close to overtaking Karl Malone (36,928) for second all-time in regular season points and is within realistic distance of passing Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) for the most all-time someday.

James is in the midst of his most prolific scoring season in more than a decade, as he is currently averaging 29.1 points per game. Only three times in his career has he averaged more than that in a season, all of which came during his first stint with the Cavs from 2003-10.

More must-reads: