LeBron James passes Wilt Chamberlain on All-Time Scoring List, leads Lakers to win

LeBron James passed Wilt Chamberlain for fifth on the NBA all-time scoring list Thursday night, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 126-117 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

James tied Chamberlain -- who also spent the latter years of his career with the Lakers -- on an and-1 runner with 3:55 remaining in the fourth quarter and passed the Hall of Fame center on the ensuing free throw, recording his 31,420th career point.

"I'm able to do what I love to do and do it at this level and to even be mentioned with the greats that played this game, it just always brings me back to my home town of Akron," James told ESPN after the game. "Knowing where I come from, knowing how hard it was to get to this point, it's just never being in satisfied mode. I give it all to the man above for giving me God given abilities. I'm taking full advantage of them and then my coaches staff and my teammates throughout these 16 years so far got me to this point."

James finished with 44 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists during Wednesday's victory. He also shot 13 of 19 from the field and 13 of 15 from the free throw line.

The 3-time NBA champion's next milestone to surpass will be Michael Jordan's 32,292 career points. If James continues scoring at his season average of 26.4 points per game -- barring an injury -- he should pass Jordan's total for fourth all-time in late January.

Aside from Chamberlain, James will also look to surpass several other legends who spent their final years with the Lakers organization. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points) ranks first, Karl Malone (36,928 points) is second and Kobe Bryant (33,643 points) ranks third all-time in career points.

"Well, it's part of what makes working for the Lakers so amazing," said Lakers coach Luke Walton when asked about James passing Chamberlain. "You have this history here. ... For him to be up there speaks more to what he's done over his entire career, obviously, as a player. The fact that he's in a Laker jersey as he does anything more just adds to the legacy of what the Lakers are."

Walton, who spent the majority of playing career with the Lakers, shared some insight on Chamberlain's legendary career.

"I've heard great Wilt stories from being around the Laker organization, including where in practice he would just take the ball and put it in the paint because he said, 'That's an automatic 2 points, so I'm not going to waste my energy jumping if I get it in the paint,'" Walton said with a smirk. "So there's some good Wilt stories around the halls of the Lakers. But just one of the all-time dominant players our game has ever seen."

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