LeBron James Reflects on Becoming NBA's All-Time Minutes Leader

On December 21, 2024, Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James celebrated reaching the milestone of becoming the NBA's all-time leader in regular-season minutes played. He shared his thoughts in an Instagram post that paid tribute to NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain.

In the post, James mimicked Chamberlain, who famously scored 100 points in a single game against the New York Knicks in 1962. With a total of 57,471 minutes played, James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's previous record of 57,446 minutes.

As he approaches his 40th birthday on December 30, James is in his 22nd NBA season, averaging 22.6 points, 9.0 assists, and 7.9 rebounds per game. Currently, he logs an average of 35.0 minutes per game for the 15-12 Lakers, who are positioned seventh in the Western Conference.

Remarkably, James has maintained high productivity well into his third decade in the league, averaging 37.9 minutes per game over his career. He's also the all-time leading scorer with 41,040 points, being the only player to surpass the 40,000-point mark.

In addition to his minutes record, James ranks fifth in games played with 1,517, and he could climb to second place by the end of the season. Abdul-Jabbar is currently second with 1,560 games, while Robert Parrish holds the all-time record with 1,611 games played.

While this minutes milestone adds to his impressive list of achievements, James remains focused on leading the Lakers to success, especially as they aim for another playoff run. The team has shown recent improvement, winning three of their last four games, with the Sacramento Kings as their next opponent.