James Harden added another milestone to his Hall of Fame résumé on Tuesday night, moving into ninth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. With 9:12 left in the third quarter, Harden knocked down a three-pointer to surpass Shaquille O’Neal’s career total of 28,596 points.
The milestone basket capped another strong performance from the veteran guard, who finished with 32 points, 10 assists, and four steals to lead the Los Angeles Clippers past the Charlotte Hornets. Harden’s rise up the scoring chart comes just 38 days after he passed Carmelo Anthony for tenth place, underscoring his sustained excellence in Year 17.
Harden is currently averaging 25.6 points per game, his highest scoring output since the 2019 to 2020 season. Remarkably, he is the only player in the top ten all-time scorers with fewer than 10,000 made field goals, with a significant portion of his points coming from beyond the arc.
“It says a lot about James, and who he is as a player,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said. “A true testament to his work … if you pass greats like Shaq, you’ve really done something.”