Kevin Durant became the eighth player in NBA history to reach the 30,000-point mark with a made free throw against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. It’s an exclusive club, but that wasn’t necessarily how the Phoenix Suns star envisioned joining it.
“I joked with my teammates just now that I thought about missing the free throw so I could actually get a field goal for my [milestone],” Durant told reporters in Phoenix after the 119-112 loss. “But nah, man, I done scored in a variety of ways, it really didn’t matter.”
Since he passed Shaquille O’Neal on the all-time scoring list last March, Durant has been behind only seven players: LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain.
“Man, it’s a true honor to be in the same category as those players who helped shape the game and push the game forward,” Durant told reporters. “And that’s always been my goal is to get the most out of myself every day and the most out of my career, so to be mentioned with those guys means I’m doing something right with myself.”
Durant said that he’s “always been inspired by the greats, always wanted to reach their level.” He described it as “surreal” to be in this category with them.
|
LeBron James |
41,623 |
|
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar |
38,387 |
|
Karl Malone |
36,928 |
|
Kobe Bryant |
33,643 |
|
Michael Jordan |
32,292 |
|
Dirk Nowitzki |
31,560 |
|
Wilt Chamberlain |
31,419 |
|
Kevin Durant |
30,008 |
Durant received an ovation after making the free throw late in the third quarter, and he received another one at the end of the quarter when the Suns acknowledged the accomplishment with a video on the jumbotron.
“It was incredible, man,” Durant said. “I heard the crowd when I made the free throw, and then when I went back to the bench. The crowd’s been great, ever since I’ve been here, supporting me.”
He added, “I’m glad that they showed up and showed up tonight. I’m just upset that we didn’t get the win for ’em, but glad they can cheer for something.”
After the buzzer, Grizzlies star Ja Morant gave the game ball to the future Hall of Famer.
“He’s one of the greats,” Morant told TNT’s Taylor Rooks in his walk-off interview. “So I honored him with the ball. He said he don’t care too much about it, but hey, everybody don’t get 30K in this league, so hats off to him. And I hope he keeps going. We want to see him out here.”
Durant said he appreciated the gesture. “That’s always been a goal of mine more so than anything in this game is to gain respect from the hoopers that play,” he said. “So for Ja to show me that respect, it means a lot to me. He’s a young player that I admired since he was in college, and I can see a few of these young players in the league reaching that milestone as well.”
Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters that it was “special for everybody that’s around him every day” to be in the building for Durant’s milestone.
“We just see it every day, so I think we’re amazed by him, the way he comes to work, the time he puts in, the attention to detail, the effort, and it’s translated to 30,000 points,” Budenholzer said. “He’s just a special layer and a special human being.”
Durant has averaged 27.1 points per game in each of the last two seasons. If he continues at this pace, which is just shy of his career scoring average, it will take him 53 games to pass Chamberlain for seventh on the list, 58 games to pass Nowitzki, 85 games to pass Jordan, 128 games to pass Bryant and 256 games to pass Malone. Asked how high he can climb, Durant said, “Who knows?” He is 36 years old, and he entered the league in 2007. He is arguably the most gifted scorer to ever walk the earth, but it’s unclear when he’ll walk away.
“I want to maximize myself every day, every game,” Durant said. “I try not to put a number on anything or predict too much. I just kind of let stuff flow. Just try to stay healthy, just try to lean on my teammates, coaches and player development, weight guys, everybody. That’s going to help me get through. So hopefully I’m around for a little bit of time, man. I’m about to be 37, so hopefully I got a few more left.”
Asked about potentially joining James in the 40K club, which would require him to continue scoring 27.1 points per game for 369 games (i.e. four-and-a-half full seasons), Durant said, “I don’t know if I can get there, man. That’s what makes LeBron’s rise to the top pretty special. He stayed healthy, he stayed consistent. So I’m just trying to stay consistent and see what happens, man.”
The crazy part is that could have reached this point earlier if not for injuries. He missed the entire 2019-20 season after having surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, and he appeared in only 35 regular-season games the following season. Nowitzki, for example, played 421 more games than Durant has so far, and Durant is catching up.
