With his sixth triple-double of the season, LeBron James guided the Lakers to a 119-101 win over the Spurs on Wednesday. As a result, he eclipsed Tim Duncan on the all-time leaderboard for career wins (playoffs included) in NBA history.
James, the all-time leader in playoff wins with 183, clinched his 976th win in the regular season, bringing his overall tally to 1,159 wins. Duncan retired with 1,158 wins (157 playoffs + 1,001 regular season) after the 2015-16 season. It was rather fitting that James eclipsed Duncan in San Antonio, the place that the latter was synonymous with between 1997 and 2016.
The Lakers star is now 70 wins shy of eclipsing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most overall wins. Abdul-Jabbar retired with 1,228 wins (154 playoffs + 1,074 regular season). While James’ playoff wins record is safe — no active player is in the vicinity — he still has a ways to go before passing Jabbar, Duncan and Robert Parish (1,014) in the list of wins in the regular season.
James could realistically pass Duncan this season and Parish next year but may have to play another two seasons to near Jabbar’s 1,074 regular-season victories.
When will LeBron pass Kareem?
As for the 70-win threshold to overtake Abdul-Jabbar on the overall list, James could realistically get there midway through the 2025-26 season.
Even if the Lakers (11-7) were to win another 35 games this season and another five in the playoffs, he’d need only 30 more wins. Considering that he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down at age 39, it’s a safe bet that he will clinch the record at some point next year.
James, the all-time points leader in history, is also on the brink of reaching the 50K points threshold (playoffs included) at some point this season. As of Thursday, he had 49,048 points (40,886 regular season + 8,162 playoffs) and was less than 1K points from the milestone.
Several more milestones await “The King,” such as the all-time leader in minutes and the most 30-point games in history. Both records are within striking distance. As of Thursday, James (558) was only four shy of Michael Jordan (562) for the latter record.
