While Tuesday night's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder was disappointing on a few fronts for the Dallas Mavericks, including their elimination from the NBA Cup, superstar Luka Doncic crossed the 12,000-point mark for his career, accomplishing the feat in just 419 games.
According to the Real App, Doncic became the fastest player since Michael Jordan to cross that mark, as Jordan did it in just 368 games. Jordan also did it more resoundingly, scoring 52 points against the newly-founded Orlando Magic in 1989, while Doncic scored just 16 points against the Thunder, 14 of those coming in the fourth quarter.
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Doncic barely beat LeBron James to the mark, as James took 438 games to reach the 12,000-point club, crossing that mark with a 33-point outing against the Toronto Raptors. That would give Doncic an inside track to beat out James as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, but James' longevity is nearly unattainable as he should be second in NBA history for most games played by the end of the season. James is seven games behind Dirk Nowitzki for fourth place on that list and 45 games behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for second.
Luka Doncic has roared out to historical levels to start his career, being one of eight players in NBA history to make five First-Team All-NBAs in their first six seasons, along with Tim Duncan, Bob Cousy, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, and George Mikan. He'd trade a lot of those accomplishments in to win an NBA Championship, something they fell just short of last season.
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