This season, Kevin Durant had already surpassed Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and Carmelo Anthony in the ranking of the best scorers in NBA history. He just climbed one more step.
It was on a shot at the free-throw line that the Suns scorer overtook Shaquille O'Neal, to climb to 8th place in the ranking of the best scorers in history. With his 22 points against the Sixers, KD now stands at 28,610 points, while Shaq stopped at 28,596 points.
“Like I said before about this stuff, I'm just grateful to be in the greats category.”, explained Kevin Durant after the meeting. “We all know what Shaq meant to the game of basketball. To be at his side is a great, very great honor in my eyes. He is one of the greatest in the history of sport. I know there's more to the game than just scoring points. It's about winning titles, doing other things, but it's cool to be up there with these other names. »
A congratulatory video from Shaq
To climb to 7th place, he will now have to pass Wilt Chamberlain and his 31,560 points in the regular season. That's 2,950 points difference. It will therefore not be for this season, nor probably for the next since he would need 107 games at his current average to reach the total of “The Stilt”.
” It's really cool “for his part released Grayson Allen. “Every five games it feels like he passes another legend, another Hall of Famer. It's just great to be here. I try not to take these moments for granted being next to such a great player. But it's really cool. »
After his basket, the Suns also broadcast on the room screens, during a timeout, a video of Shaquille O'Neal who congratulated Kevin Durant for having passed him.
“Congratulations on passing me and becoming the eighth leading scorer in NBA history”Shaq said. “It’s deserved, but you know it doesn’t stop there. We'll see if you can reach first place. I'm happy for you. Say hello to your lovely mom. And congratulations my brother. It's a job well done. »
