Lakers' LeBron James: 'Pretty Cool' I'll Be 1st 40,000-Point Scorer in NBA History

LeBron James is no stranger to rewriting record books and making history, so it's no surprise he would have a somewhat subdued response when thinking about how it will feel to be the first NBA player to reach 40,000 career points

Speaking to reporters on Thursday night, James said it will be "pretty cool" to hit the benchmark:

"No one has ever done it. And for me to be in this position at this point and time in my career, I think it's pretty cool. Does it sit at the top of the things I've done in my career? No. But does it mean something? Of course. Absolutely. Why wouldn't it?

"To be able to accomplish things in this league, with the greatest players to ever play in this league, the NBA, this has been a dream of mine and to hit feats and have milestones throughout my career, they all mean something to me. Absolutely. Obviously, there's a pecking order of which ones are higher than others, but absolutely. I would be lying to you if I said it doesn't mean anything. Because it absolutely does."

There aren't many scoring records James doesn't own at this point in his career. He surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer on Feb. 7, 2023.

If you combine James' regular-season, postseason and national team scoring output, his current total sits at 49,572. He's only 165 points away from catching Brazilian legend Oscar Schmidt (49,737) as the most prolific scorer in basketball history.

Every point James has scored since then is setting a new NBA record. He sits nine points away from 40,000, so it will likely happen fairly early in his next game.

James and the Los Angeles Lakers will host the Denver Nuggets in a rematch of last season's Western Conference Finals on Saturday.