Kevin Durant Reflects on Making NBA History, Nearing Wilt Chamberlain's Scoring Mark
Things are going great for Kevin Durant, who became the eighth player in NBA history to reach 31,000 career points while helping the Houston Rockets to a 117-98 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Speaking to Vanessa Richardson of Space City Home Network about the milestone, Durant said he was "grateful to be in the position" where he can live out his dreams for all the people who believed in him along the way.
When Richardson asked Durant what his younger self might have said if he knew he would be accomplishing all he has in his career so far, Durant had a perfect response: "I would've said, 'damn right!'"
During his postgame press conference with other members of the media, Durant was more reflective about this moment and approaching Wilt Chamberlain on the NBA's all-time scoring list:
"As you're coming up into the league, you look at these guys as heroes and you put them on pedestals, and you look at their accomplishments as sometimes unreachable. But then you get on that road trying to do your thing. That's how I've done since 2008. I've been focused on trying to be the best player I can be, and they set a standard for each player when they left the league. Guys like Wilt, Michael, Kobe —I'm missing so many guys. They just set a standard that I try to reach every day.
"I just felt like if I locked in and did what I did, I could be mentioned in the same breath as those guys. That's the confidence I had, but I knew it was going to be a tough journey. I've got more to do. I'm grateful to still be playing, and hopefully I keep doing this, moving up the charts."
Durant entered the day needing just four points to hit 31,000 for his career and got it on a jumper midway through the first quarter. He finished with 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting in 32 minutes against his former team.
The future Hall of Famer now has 31,024 career points and could move into fifth place on the all-time scoring list this season as long as he remains healthy.
Durant is only 395 points behind Chamberlain (31,419) and 536 behind Dirk Nowitzki (31,560) in NBA history. Using his scoring average of 25.2 points per game this season, he could pass Nowitzki in 22 games.
After Nowitzki, the next name on the list Durant will be chasing is Michael Jordan at 32,292. He would need 51 games at his current scoring pace to reach that threshold.
It's not implausible if Durant stays healthy because the Rockets have 62 games remaining in the regular season. He has only appeared in at least 65 games once in the past seven seasons (75 in 2023-24).
The Rockets have been thriving with Durant as the engine of their offense. They are off to a 15-5 start and have the second-best record in the Western Conference, behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder (22-1).
