Kobe Bryant, has added another NBA record to his name, at just thirty-four years old, he has now scored over 30,000 points in his career. He joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan. The only difference? He’s the youngest to reach this milestone out of the five. Kobe has been averaging at least 27.9 points per game this season.
He scored his 30,000 & 30,001 points over center for the New Orleans Hornets, Robin Lopez, the youngest in NBA history, with just 17 seasons under his belt. Bryant has only been a member of the Lakers, which means he’s scored all 30,000 + points with one team. He will be the most acknowledged player in franchise history, more widely recognized than Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls.
Friend and nemesis of Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, former teammate, acknowledged Kobe’s milestone and congratulated him on twitter’s sports social media section by saying:
David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, wanted to find Bryant after the game, to congratulate him on an extraordinary milestone. Stern had this to say about Bryant.
“As a talent, a competitor, I think that he is up there on the pedestal with Michael Jordan. He is one of the greatest.”
Bryant ended the game with 29 points, and had something great to say about his milestone “It’s pretty awesome. These are players I respect tremendously and obviously grew up idolizing and watching and learned a great deal from.” The Lakers ended up winning the game against the Hornets, 103-87, snapping a 2 game losing streak.
I grew up watching Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Karl Malone. Jordan and Malone were two of the greatest players I had ever seen. To see Kobe come out on top, as the youngest player to reach 30,000 points in a 17 year career, just makes me smile. He’s a determined player and has been for so long, can still have an amazing game with flu-like symptoms, dunk like he’s still in his early 20’s and player more minutes than rookies who are at least 12 years younger than him. He is the veteran of the team, but he will always be the alpha of the team, until the day he retires.
“I think now, honestly I don’t know why I’m still working as hard as I am after 17 years,” Bryant said. “I mean, it’s just that I enjoy what I do and I think that’s the thing that I’m most proud of — every year, every day working hard at it. That’s a lot of years, a lot of work.”
– Bryant on his milestone of 30,000 career points and counting.
