NBA Career Scoring Leaders Trivia Quiz

Schectman scored the first basket on opening night of what was then the Basketball Association of America (which would become the National Basketball Association).

Schectman played for the Knicks that season, but never played in either the BAA or NBA again. He scored an average of 8.1 points a game in 54 games that season, good for third on his own team in scoring.

But for a few minutes, he was the career leader in points.

Sadowski, of the Toronto Huskies, scored 18 points to pace all players on the opening night of the league.

Sadowski only played 10 games with Toronto that season, and then moved on to the Cleveland Rebels, where he played the majority of the season.

Over the next 2 plus weeks, nine different players would be the season, and therefore technically career, leader.

Bob Feerick passed Sadowski the very next night, but he also didn't hold the then-record for long.

Feerick, who played for Washington that season, finished the season second on the scoring list.

Fulks was the leader by the end of the first season, and the only player with over 1,000 points that year.

He held the record from 1946 until 1952. After being passed for the lead by George Mikan, Fulks would briefly retake the career lead in 1952, but for less than 2 weeks.

After the whirlwind switching of the record among many players in the 1946 season, the record didn't change hands nearly as often.

George Mikan, the league's first dominant center, became the scoring leader on March 4 1952, passing Fulks, who was still an active player at the time. Fulks would play until 1954.

Fulks would reclaim the lead 11 days after Mikan originally passed him and keep it until Nov. 1, 1952, when Mikan took the scoring lead back

Mikan retired in the 1953-1954 season as well, but came back for 37 games in the 1955-56 season, to extend his career scoring lead. The 390 points he added in those extra few game was enough to push him over 10,000 career points, the first person to ever do it.

Schayes nearly doubled the career record, moving it from 10,156 to 18,438 when he retired in 1964.

He passed Mikan on Jan. 12, 1957, just a few months after Mikan retired as the first player with over 10,000 career points.

Schayes played 15 seasons, was a 12 time all star and made the All-NBA first or second team 12 times as well.

Despite being the most prolific scorer in league history to that point, he never won an MVP award.

Pettit actually caught and passed Schayes during Schayes final season, ending the 1963-64 season as the career scoring leader.

Pettit played only one more season, ending with 20,880 after the 1964-65 season.

Pettit became the top scorer on Nov. 13, 1963.

Wilt Chamberlain passed Bob Pettit on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) 1966.

He would push the record to a whopping 31,419 (nearly 11,000 points more than the previous record) before he retired in 1973.

Chamberlain was the most dominate player in league history to that point, scoring at will, but also deciding one season he didn't want to score, and instead lead the league in assists as a center.

Chamberlain also averaged over 50 points a game for a season, and scored 100 points in a single game that year.

Chamberlain sat out the final year of his contract before retiring, missed most of another season injured, and played with the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the league.

Abdul-Jabbar, who started his career as Lew Alcindor before changing his name for religious reasons, became the all-time scoring leader off of a pass from Magic Johnson near the end of the 1983-84 season. He ended the game with just 2 points more than Chamberlain, but would stretch the career record to 38,387 before he retired in 1989.

Abdul-Jabbar was a 6 time league MVP and 19 time all star.

Kareem held the record from April 5, 1984 until Feb. 7, 2023, just shy of 39 years.

LeBron James passed Abdul-Jabbar after nearly 40 years. Abdul Jabbar broke the record in April of 1983, and James passed him in February of 2023, 39 years and 10 months later.

Through his first 20 seasons, James won 4 MVP awards, was a 19 time all star, and made 19 all NBA teams, as well as the Rookie of the year award. At age 35, he also lead the league in assists, making him the second person to hold the scoring record, who also lead the league in assists at least once.

In the 2024-25 season, James 22nd year in the NBA, he played several games with his son LeBron James Jr., making them the first father son to play in the same game together.