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Scoring is surely the most important stat in basketball, and doing it consistently in the NBA is huge for a player's resume. In this article, we will take a look at the top ten active NBA players with the most career points.
Top 10 active NBA players with the most career points
Career points scored by a player are only accounted for by their regular-season tallies; the points scored in the NBA Playoffs are grouped separately in a player's career total. For example, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record for most points scored in NBA history (38,387) is only for his tally in the regular season.
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Surely, this ranking is not about the ten active players with the most points per game average in the NBA. That list would look very different because there are players that have come into the NBA five years ago and are averaging more points than many veterans we will find in our list.
Here, we will have a look at the ten active players with the most points scored in the NBA regular season.
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#10 DeMar DeRozan - 16,435 points (101st in NBA history)
Having played 11 seasons in the NBA and starting 808 times in 820 games, DeMar DeRozan ranks tenth among active NBA players in the category of total points scored.
With a career-high of 2,020 points scored in a single NBA season, DeRozan also has seven consecutive campaigns in which he averaged at least 20 points per game and scored at least 1,200 points.
The only season in which he averaged less than 16 points per game and scored less than 1,000 points was in his rookie year.
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#9 Dwight Howard - 18,631 points (66th in NBA history)
Though he is now reduced to being a role player for the almighty LA Lakers, Dwight Howard will surely be a member of The Basketball Hall of Fame after he retires from the NBA.
During his fabulous NBA career (which many expected to be even better), Howard has been renowned for his defensive prowess, but he has also been able to score 18,631 points in the NBA while averaging 16.7 points per game.
His best season in terms of points scored was in the 2010-11 campaign when he accounted for 1,784 points for the Orlando Magic. During that season, Howard won his third-straight NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award and finished second in the NBA MVP race behind Chicago Bulls' point guard Derrick Rose.
#8 Chris Paul - 18,829 points (63rd in NBA history)
The NBA's best leader, according to NBA Hall of Fame member and TNT analyst Charles Barkley, Chris Paul is not just a machine who helps his teammates find the shot they feel most comfortable with; he also makes the Top 10 in terms of points scored by active NBA players.
CP3 has garnered 18,829 points in his illustrious 15-year NBA career which ranks eighth among current NBA athletes and 63rd in the league's history. The 2008-09 NBA season was Paul's best in terms of scoring, with 1,781 points (22.8 per game).
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#7 Jamal Crawford - 19,419 points (54th in NBA history)
Having Jamal Crawford in this list is probably a surprise for many casual NBA fans, but Crawford, during his 20-year career, has been a volume scorer in the competition.
While averaging 14.6 points in 1,327 career games, Crawford has amassed a total of 19,419 points and ranks seventh in our list. Even though he has started less than half of his games in the regular season, Crawford averages close to 30 minutes per game since he is a perfect player to lead the bench.
Crawford only played one game in the 2019-20 season with the Brooklyn Nets, though.
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#6 LaMarcus Aldridge - 19,599 points (49th in NBA history)
A 14-year NBA veteran and a solid mid-range and post scorer, LaMarcus Aldridge ranks sixth in our list with 19,599 career points.
During his nine years with the Portland Trail Blazers, the soft-touch power forward scored 12,562 points and averaged 19.4 points in 648 games. Since his move to the San Antonio Spurs in 2015, Aldridge has scored 7,037 points in 355 games (19.8 per game).
His best year in terms of total points came in the 2010-11 campaign with the Blazers (1,769 points).
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#5 Russell Westbrook - 20,412 points (43rd in NBA history)
The scoring of Russell Westbrook, the MVP in the 2016-17 NBA season, went up a notch during the middle part of his career in the league.
A two-time NBA scoring champion (in the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons), Westbrook ranks fifth in our list and is the first player in this list with at least 20,000 points, a feat that has only been achieved by 46 players in NBA history.
Westbrook's best season in terms of scoring was the 2016-17 campaign with the Oklahoma City Thunder when he garnered 2,558 points. That year, he became the second player in NBA history to average a triple-double for the entire regular season (Oscar Robertson was the first).
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#4 James Harden - 20,962 points (36th in NBA history)
A three-time NBA scoring champion who has averaged 25 points per game in his career, James Harden is not a surprise in this list.
The Beard has scored with remarkable consistency since he arrived in the league with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since joining the Houston Rockets in the 2012-13 NBA season, Harden has shown that he is a superstar and one of the best scorers in competition history.
Harden has won the last three NBA scoring titles and has averaged more than 30 points per game in each of these years. His best season in terms of points scored came in the 2018-19 season; Harden was on course to have his best total in the 2019-20 season, but the shortened campaign meant that that couldn't happen.
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#3 Kevin Durant - 22,940 points (31st in NBA history)
The best player on the planet for many, Kevin Durant is possibly a Top-5 scorer in the history of the NBA. The winner of four scoring titles since he entered the NBA in 2007, Durant is one of the most versatile and prolific scorers in the competition.
His career average for points per game of 27.02 ranks sixth in NBA history; he has achieved that feat by shooting 49% from the field, which is stunning.
During his 12-season NBA career, KD has scored 22,940 points. He has led the league in total points scored on five occasions, with his best such year coming in the 2013-14 season, one in which he was the MVP with 2,593 points (averaging 32 points per game).
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#2 Carmelo Anthony - 26,446 points (15th in NBA history)
A relentlessly-high volume scorer since he commenced his 17-season NBA career, Carmelo Anthony is well-known for being all-out in attack when having the ball in his hands.
An amazing scorer who has shot 45% from the field during his career, Anthony has one NBA scoring title in his resume (2012-13 NBA season) and is one of just 18 players in the history of The Association to score at least 26,000 points.
Anthony's best scoring year was in the 2005-06 campaign with the Denver Nuggets when he accounted for 2,122 points in 80 regular-season games.
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#1 LeBron James - 34,241 points (3rd in NBA history)
LeBron James is the only active player in the NBA who is inside the Top 10 for most points scored in the history of the league. Arguably the greatest player in the history of the game, LeBron James is at the top of this list by a proverbial country mile.
The King, considered by many to be a pass-first player, has scored a whopping 34,241 points during his illustrious NBA career. Even though he has never led the NBA in points per game, his career average ranks fourth in the all-time list, just behind Michael Jordan (30.1), Wilt Chamberlain (30) and Elgin Baylor (27.3).
LeBron James' best scoring campaign came in the 2005-06 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers when he scored a total of 2,478 points.
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