The Fastest NBA Players To Reach 20,000 Career Points

Scoring a total of 20,000 points is a rare feat in an NBA career. In the 75-year history of the NBA, only 49 players have scored at least 20,000 points. Some of these all-time great scorers wasted no time in reaching the milestone. It took the elite of the elite less than 700 games or a little under 9 seasons. For other players, it had taken an entire career to reach the 20,000-point plateau. Scoring 20,000 points less than halfway through your career is slightly more impressive because it can show just how good of a scorer you were at or as you were hitting your peak. Of course, 20,000 points is an accomplishment in itself but doing it in the fewest amount of games is on another level.

Among active NBA players, there are just two who are within reasonable reach of hitting that mark in the near future. DeMar DeRozan is just 139 points away from hitting the 20,000-point mark after playing in 957 career games. That is more games than any of the players that appear on our list today. Dwight Howard has played a total of 1,242 games in his career and currently sits 515 points away from 20,000. Those are two pretty decent scorers at their peak which goes to show just how elite the 10 players below are.

Here are the 10 players in NBA history who reached 20,000 career points in the fewest amount of games.

10. Kevin Durant - 737 Games

Kevin Durant is highly regarded as one of the most lethal scorers in NBA history. With his 7’0’’ height and slender build, Durant has become a master scorer at all three levels. He combines skill and finesse mixed with an incredible handle on the ball at his height to create shots he has become accustomed to knocking down from various ranges. During his early days in Oklahoma City with the Thunder, Durant racked up the points by taking home 4 scoring titles in 5 seasons from 2010 to 2014. Even as he continues to add to his total, he has remained consistent. He has averaged at least 25.0 PPG every season since 2009.

In the 5 seasons in which he took home 4 scoring titles, Durant averaged 29.3 PPG over 388 games played. Since then, Durant has played in 478 games with an average of 27.8 PPG. Another reason why Durant is such an incredible scorer is his efficiency in shooting the ball. He is a career 38.4% from the three-point range with 5 seasons of 40.0% or better. He is a 49.6% shooter overall with now 9 straight seasons of above 50.0%. As it stands heading into the 2022-23 season, Kevin Durant has a total of 25,526 career points. In 2021-22 with Brooklyn, he scored 1,643 points in 55 games played for an average of 29.9 PPG. Can he become the 9th player in NBA history to reach 30,000 points?

9. Shaquille O’Neal - 727 Games

The 9th fastest player to reach 20,000 career points is Shaquille O’Neal who accomplished the feat in 10 fewer games than Kevin Durant. At his peak, Shaq was arguably the most dominant force in NBA history, making professional basketball players look like babies while he controlled the paint. Shaq made his debut with the Orlando Magic during the 1992-93 season. That year, he averaged 23.4 PPG on 56.2% shooting. It would take Shaq until 2004 to ever dip below those scoring numbers again in his career. Over that scratch, he would win 2 scoring titles and lead the league in field goal percentage 7 times (9 times in his career).

While his dominant scratch proceeded, Shaq would lead the Lakers to 3 straight championships from 2000 through 2002. Over those 3 seasons, he would average 28.6 PPG on57.5% shooting as an unstoppable inside presence. His dominant scoring wasn’t just limited to the regular season. In 136 playoff games between Orlando and Los Angeles, Shaq averaged 28.1 PPGwith3 playoff runs over 30.0 PPG. Shaq ranks 10th all-time on the NBA’s scoring list with 28,596 points.

8. LeBron James - 726 Games

LeBron needed just one game less than Shaquille O’Neal to crack 20,000 points for his career. LeBron may be the 8th fastest player to reach this point but he was the youngest to do so way back in 2013 with the Miami Heat. It is funny how we do not regard LeBron James as a scorer but here we are talking about him as the 8th youngest player to reach 20,000 points. LeBron has bigger fish to fry anyway. Headed into the 2022-23 season, James is just 1,325 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time record of 38,387 points.

How has LeBron reached this point? Well, if there are only a few words to describe his career, it would be consistency and sustained greatness. Since entering the NBA 19 seasons ago, LeBron has averaged at least 25.0 PPG every year except for his rookie campaign. He has done this while winning 4 championships, 4 MVP awards, 4 Finals MVP awards, and 1 scoring title. At 37 years old this past season, James broke the 30.0 PPG mark for a season for the 3rd time in his career, shattering records in the process. How many games until we crown LeBron James as the game’s all-time leading scorer?

7. Jerry West - 717 Games

The man known as the NBA logo, Jerry West needed just 717 games to reach 20,000 points in his career. West is one of the game’s greatest scorers and players, toting a 27.0 PPG average which is the 5th best mark in NBA history for PPG. West played just 14 seasons in his NBA career but managed to tally 25,192 career points which rank 27th on the all-time list. In his career, West managed to help the Lakers reach 9 NBA Finals with his only win coming in 1972. He is still the only player in NBA history to win a Finals MVP award in a losing effort.

This alludes to Jerry West’s incredible scoring on the biggest stage. He currently holds the record for 30-point games in the NBA Finals, recording 31 such games in 55 attempts. He also holds the record for most total points in the NBA Finals. In his 14-year career, West had 4 seasons in which he averaged over 30.0 PPG and 1 scoring title to his name. He averaged 25.0 PPG or more for 11 seasons straight from 1962 through 1972 with a scoring average of 28.7 PPG over that time.

6. Allen Iverson - 713 Games

Allen Iverson was one of the most exciting and prolific scorers of the 2000s in the NBA. He was AND1 streetball on steroids at the professional level with his incredible speed and impeccable control over the ball in his hands. Standing at just 6’0’’, Iverson used that agility and ball control to create his shots from the mid-range. His ability to blow by defenders and make tough baskets at the rim made him a nightmare for opposing defense for over a decade. In his 14-year career, Iverson tallied 24,368 points for an average of 26.7 PPG.

Iverson was an elite scorer nearly from the outset of his career. He won a scoring title in his 3rd season in 1999 with an average of 26.8 PPG. He would then win 2 of the next 3 scoring titles, each with an average that exceeded 30.0 PPG. He would add his 4th scoring title to his resume in 2005, once again averaging over 30.0 PPG. From 1999 to 2008, he averaged at least 26.0 PPG every season on 42.3% shooting. He took home the 2001 MVP award and led the 76ers to the Finals in the same season with a playoff average of 32.9 PPG.

5. Elgin Baylor - 711 Games

Elgin Baylor needed just 2 fewer games than Allen Iverson to claim the 5th spot on our list. Baylor was known as one of the first players to add style and flair to his game while playing above the rim. Some could say his style and prolific scoring helped propel the Lakers to move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. He is another one of the mainstays on the Lakers teams that continued to come up short in the NBA Finals in the 60s and 70s, retiring just before they would finally get over the hump in 1972.

Baylor was the elite of the elite when it came to scoring small forwards in NBA history. He played 14 seasons for the Lakers and failed to average at least 24.0 PPG just three times, including his final 2 seasons in which he played in just 11 games total. This includes a scoring stretch from 1961 through 1963 that saw Baylor average over 30.0 PPG each season and capping out at 38.3 PPG in 1962. He also led the playoffs in scoring for four years straight from 1960 to 1963 and had a career average of 27.0 PPG in the playoffs.

4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 684 Games

In the early part of his career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the most unstoppable scorer in basketball. Between his days with the Bucks and Lakers, Kareem won 6 NBA championships and 6 MVP awards. As it stands, Kareem is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points. Kareem hit the ground running in 1970 when he debuted as a rookie and averaged 28.8 PPG. He would win back-to-back scoring titles in 1971 and 1972 with seasons of 31.7 PPG and 34.8 PPG respectively. He would then go on to average at least 21.0 PPG for the next 14 seasons in a row.

Without the last 3 seasons of his career as an elder player, Kareem’s career average would sit at 26.4 PPG. In his first 6 seasons in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks, he averaged 30.4 PPG on 54.7 % shooting. His dominance could mostly be attributed to the existence of one move, his patented skyhook. His postseason scoring was just as overwhelming as his regular season scoring as he sported a 24.3 PPG career playoff average and led the playoffs 5 different times in PPG. How long will he remain atop the NBA’s all-time scoring list?

3. Oscar Robertson - 671 Games

Oscar Robertson is one of 3 players in NBA history to score 20,000 points in less than 700 games played. The original triple-double king is one of the greatest point guards in NBA history with an aptitude for scoring, passing, and rebounding at a high level consistently. Oscar played his first 10 seasons in the NBA as a member of the Cincinnati Royals. In 6 out of his first 7 seasons, Robertson averaged 30.0 PPG or more. He won a scoring title in 1968 with 29.2 PPG and was the first player to average a triple-double for an entire season in 1962.

The amazing thing about Robertson’s scoring is that he did it while being an elite playmaker as well. He led the league in assists 7 times while averaging29.7 PPG over that span. His playoff scoring was no different with a 22.2 PPG career average and a 29.7 PPG average in the 6 playoff trips with the Royals. Oscar would help Milwaukee capture its first title in 1971 when he helped put them over the top after a Finals loss in 1970. Oscar Robertson ranks 15th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 26,710 points.

2. Michael Jordan - 620 Games

The list of Michael Jordan’s scoring accolades is endless. It is what makes him not only the greatest scorer to ever play in the NBA but the greatest player to ever live. Jordan won an NBA record 10 scoring titles in his 15-year career, including 7 straight from 1987 through 1993. He would add 3 more consecutively from 1996 through 1998. He owns the NBA record for most PPG in the regular season for a career with 30.1 PPG and for the playoffs with 33.4 PPG. His high-scoring acumen would net him 5 MVP awards, 6 championships, and 6 Finals MVP awards.

Did I mention that he has the highest-scoring NBA Finals series ever with 41.0 PPG and the 2nd-highest PPG in the Finals for a career with 33.6 PPG? In his first 7 scoring titles, Jordan averaged over 30.0 PPG in each season for an average of 33.2 PPG on 51.8% shooting over that span. Jordan may not have had much of a shot from three but he mastered the art of scoring from the mid-range and at the rim. In his final 3 scoring title seasons, Jordan averaged 29.6 PPG and won 3 championships in his second three-peat with the Bulls.

1. Wilt Chamberlain - 499 Games

The tales of Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring almost feel like they should be a reading from a novel about Greek mythology. He owns most of the existing NBA scoring record and if they happened to create a new statistic, he probably would lead in that too. Wilt dominated his era in scoring like no other, raking in 7 scoring titles in the first 7 seasons of his career with the Warriors and Sixers. This includes the greatest single-scoring season in NBA history when he averaged 50.4 PPG in 1962. Amazingly, he wasn’t voted MVP that season.

He followed up his ridiculous 1962 with a scoring average of 44.8 PPG in 1963. For the totality of his first 7 seasons, he averaged a whopping 39.6 PPG while leading the league in rebounds 5 times. He averaged 24.8 RPG over that span for reference. Wilt would use his mammoth numbers to go on and win 4 MVP awards, 2 championships, and a Finals MVP in 1972. Wilt played just 14 seasons in the NBA and currently sits 7th on the all-time list in points with 31,419 points. His 30.1 PPG ranks second slightly behind Michael Jordan for the NBA record as well. 

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