Carmelo Anthony Becomes 21st Player in NBA History to Score 25,000 Points

The NBA's 25,000-point club welcomed its 21st member on Saturday when Carmelo Anthony hit a free throw in the third quarter of the Oklahoma City Thunder's game against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.

"Congratulations to Carmelo on joining the 25,000-point club and for his remarkable scoring ability and consistency over 15 seasons," commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement issued through the NBA. 

LeBron James, one of Anthony's closest friends, was also quick to congratulate him on the achievement: 

Anthony is also one of three active players, along with James and Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, who are represented in the 25K club. 

"You look at 25,000 points, that's a lot of points, and doing it on a nightly basis like he's done is really remarkable," Thunder head coach Billy Donovan told reporters prior to Saturday's game, per ESPN.com's Michael Rothstein. "He'll go down as one of the greatest scorers this game has known and I think the other part of it, too, is his willingness to be that kind of scorer for a good portion of his career and step into a team and in some ways adjust and change to provide our team what it needs, and he's been a consummate professional and really good about that."

Next up for Anthony will be passing Jerry West and cracking the top 20 on the league's all-time scoring list. 

As things stand, Anthony is less than 200 points away from passing West—who dropped 25,192 points over the course of his illustrious career. 

After that, Melo will set his sights on surpassing Reggie Miller, Alex English and a trio of Boston Celtics greats in Kevin Garnett, John Havlicek and Paul Pierce.